WP: Senate GOP Fears Frist's Presidential Ambitions Split Party

[DeepModem Mom]

Senate GOP Fears Frist's Ambitions Split Party
Conflicts Seen With 2008 Aspirations
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006; Page A04

By pushing his way to the front of the volatile debate over immigration, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has reignited complaints that his presidential ambitions conflict with his leadership duties at times and put him at odds with his GOP caucus.

Frist (R-Tenn.) pointedly told the Judiciary Committee on March 16 that unless it produced a comprehensive bill by Monday, he would send his own proposal to the Senate floor. The committee worked overtime to comply, but Frist still arranged for his bill -- which places more emphasis on border security -- to draw several hours of debate before yielding to the committee measure as the vehicle for amendments and votes, which will start today.

Frist's tactics rankled some GOP colleagues who wanted more time to talk through the divisive questions of illegal immigrants, border fences, guest-worker options and other matters.

"We should have had a much more ambitious process of trying to build consensus and bringing people and different views together before we engaged in debate on the Senate floor," Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) said in an interview. "As majority leader you can't be single-minded. You've got to deal with a confluence of challenges and priorities, on behalf of the president, on behalf of the overall party and on behalf of the institution."

Frist's supporters say he balances his dual roles fairly and does not put his presidential ambitions ahead of his 55-member caucus's best interests. But some close observers in the Senate and elsewhere see a pattern in which he repeatedly veers right on contentious issues, which could boost his chances in a GOP presidential primary likely to include more centrist Republicans such as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032902315.html

[Divernan]

1. GOP CEOs and politicos cannibalize their own organizations.

Frist's total unconcern for any future but his own, mirrors Enron's Ken Lay cannibalizing and destroying his own corporation for personal profit.

[Virginia Dare]

2. I'll drink to that!

:beer:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. That devil! LOL

[Joe Fields]

4. I have similar fears about Hillary splitting Dems.

[Supersedeas]

5. You may be onto something