November 29, 2006

Frist: Why He Said No

To the politically engaged public, Bill Frist was President Bush’s hand-picked majority leader who had to placate 54 other egos. To the press, he was derided, often cast as close to incompetent. To his staff, he was the guy who dropped everything in the middle of a heated immigration debate to tend to an ill staffer. The disjuncture between these views is striking.

The Wall Street Journal’s David Rogers noted that Frist, in an interview last night, “seemed to acknowledge he had lost some of his own identity.” Frist sees himself as a guy who helps others. From his statement today: “My dad in his later years wanted to impart some wisdom to his grandchildren and great grandchildren he would never meet. One thing he wrote that has stuck with me- in fact been a clarion call to me -- was there is so much good to do in the world and so many ways to do it. Politics is a noble occupation. Medicine is a noble profession. Service to others underlies both.” Health care was a true passion, one that he could never find enough time for as Majority Leader.

It’s ironic: lured by the illusion of being in control, he found he could not shape legislation to the degree he had hoped, according to one current aide and one outside adviser. “He wasn’t able to pursue the ideas that excited him,” a current senior staffer said.

Around 11:00 am, today, Frist held a conference call with his staff. He told them that he was most proud of his accomplishments in health care. Topping that list, Frist said, was his work to add billions to fund HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa.

After 9/11, Congress ceded policy making, especially for everything related to defense and national security, to the White House. Republicans allowed the White House to dictate the terms of the domestic policy agenda as well. Occasionally, as with Pres. Bush’s push for a Medicare prescription drug benefit, The White House’s agenda coincided with Frist’s. Often, as when the White House decided to spend the first part of 2005 on Social Security reform, they did not. But Frist does not think his fidelity to the president was a mistake.

First does not suffer from a lack of staff loyalty; they are totally devoted to the guy. In Memphis last Spring, as Frist prepared for his home-state straw poll, they distributed (and proudly wore) stickers that said “Frist Is My Leader,” vaguely unaware of the Orwellian undertones. The metrics his political advisers set for him in 2006 suggest that they did not fully appreciate the power of a negative public image. If Frist could win the straw poll, have a fairly bump-free year in the Congress and confirm conservative judges, and finally, if Republicans kept control of the Senate, Frist’s political team believed that he’d be judged a top-tier presidential candidate. [MARC AMBINDER}

It proved mildly frustrating when the negative press clips kept coming, when colleagues anonymously carped to reporters about his leadership style, when pundits kept snorting at his presidential prospects. The press didn’t get Frist, they believed. But no matter: they would bypass the filter. Frist’s team built a formidable e-mail list of donors and contacts and made sure his Volunteer PAC website was fully featured and interactive. The thinking was that because there was a void on the right side of the Republican presidential ledger, Frist would end 2006 on a high note (having retained the Senate), would vault into 2007 raising tons of money, and would announce his candidacy by pledging to transform the American health care system. Exogenous events aside, the Frist intervention didn’t work. Their surgical incisions to repair parts of his image could not keep up with the perception that he was not, as majority leader, in the job best suited to his talents.

It was never clear whether he was comfortable actually being a social conservative. It was always clear – witness his body language during the Gang of 14 debate – that he believed there were other ways to serve humanity than sparring with Harry Reid and John McCain. He was a very nice guy in a job where being nice gets you next to nothing.

Frist may well play a role in the 2008 race. Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) plans to base his campaign on a market-based national health care solution. Frist will watch the debate closely.

More, from Frist: “We are ready to return to Nashville and private life. We will seek the best opportunity to serve mankind. We will stay actively involved in formulating innovative solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems that face Americans every day -- high cost of health care, energy dependence, the threat of radical Islam. I may return to what I’ve done for most of my adult life: heal through medicine (the way I saw my dad serve since I was a little boy riding around with him, his black doctor’s bag tucked between us, as he’d travel the neighborhood making house calls). I, of course, will immediately resume my regular medical mission trips as a doctor around the world to serve those in poverty, in famine, and in civil war. That is where my centeredness is fueled.”

Posted at 01:10 PM

Comments

I couldn't think of a more noble, humble, and genuinely selfless cause for minister Frist than to work door-to-door and tend to the sick and wounded in civil-war-torn Iraq. This would be the most appropriate way for minister Frist to demonstrate his purity, nobility, and supreme moral superiority.

Jim | 11.29.06 06:18 PM

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