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Tuesday, June 21, 2005

More strong leadership in the Senate

Today brought another reminder that Bill Frist became Senate Majority Leader by accident and not through any particular political skills or back-room savvy of his own. The Washington Post reports:
"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist first announced today that he was finished calling votes on John R. Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, calling it a pointless exercise. But about an hour later, after a meeting with President Bush, the Tennessee Republican did an about-face: He will continue pushing for a floor vote on the controversial nominee after all."
It's hard to understand what political instincts impelled Frist to make the first statement shortly before heading for an obvious arm-twisting session with his most important constituent. Maybe it was bad staff work. Maybe Frist gets these ideas from time to time that he needs to "be his own man" instead of just a creature of the White House that propelled him into the leadership position. If so, his assertions of autonomy seem to be fleeting. In early March it was a similar story:
"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who angered some fellow Republicans this week by suggesting President Bush's proposed Social Security revisions might have to wait a year, said yesterday the legislation needs to pass this year."
That time, at least, Frist didn't reverse himself within an hour. But the reason for the reversal was the same. As he put it today, "The president made it very clear that he expects an up-or-down vote."--which is an interesting comment from the leader of a separate branch of government.

It seems inherently unfair to compare Bill Frist to Lyndon Johnson, but Johnson earned a biography titled "Master of the Senate" in no small part by always knowing where the votes were on anything important. If LBJ said a nominee was dead, you'd best start vetting the next person. By contrast, it's apparent that not many people in the White House or on his own side of the aisle are putting much stock in what Sen. Frist says the vote count is on key matters. He's been sidestepped by senior senators on the filibuster, second-guessed by the White House today. As Frist is demonstrating, if you aren't right about the vote count, it's hard to say which measures are alive and which are dead. And if you can't be consistently right about those things, it's hard to be an effective legislative leader. Presidential mouthpiece, on the other hand, is an easier gig.


posted at 12:38 PM

1 Comments:

Blogger syp said...

I thought the cabinet & Scott McClellan were the Presidential moutpieces? If Frist wants to get in on that action he's really going to improve his performance.

June 21, 2005 1:51 PM  

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