I think that Frist is no Lyndon Johnson. If McCain had of tried something like that with LBJ as majority leader McCain, and the other six malcontents, would be politically drawn and quartered.
How do you draw and quarter recalcitrant senators these days? In the media age, with self financed senators not relying on the party (about a third of them multi millionaires), I would suggest that is impossible.
LBJ I think had over 60 Senators, plus more Repubs were liberal back then. Frist does not have 50 Conservative Repubs maybe 40-45. All the bashing of Frist on this site, not saying this to you, is way overblown.