Frist is not responsible for being forced to do what he did to chase the base voters...
During the process of trying to sew up a disaffected political base, he did affect and encourage the swing voter defections to the other side, but he was dealing with the reality of a screwed up constituent base, and it is not his responsibility to cure those ills. The base was completely fragmented and and lost cohesiveness, forcing him to chase groups and segments, and pissing off the rest.
All this finger pointing at leadership is nonsense.
If you want to know why we lost, and will continue to lose, just look in the mirror. The answer will be looking back at you.
The Republican leadership is hapless. Frist and Bush are inept at enforcing party discipline.
The base is disgusted and sick of backstabbing assclown turncoats like John McCain who throw monkey wrenches into the party, and weak party leaders like Bush who sign bills like CFR in the hope that the liberal SCOTUS will declare them unconstitutional.
Ball-less, whimpering, weaklings all.