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Just hours ago, I introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill ... "Support Our Scouts Act of 2005." You may recall that I wrote to you about this subject a few months ago. I wanted to give you an update ...

By noon last Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist seemed done with John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador. Bustling from the Capitol to have lunch with President Bush, he told reporters he planned no further votes to try to end the Democrats' long-running filibuster of the embattled nominee. But after his presidential chat, Frist announced he would keep trying, prompting newspaper headlines such as "Frist Reverses Himself," which his staff called unfair. The next day, the Tennessee surgeon-turned-politician again seemed to wash his hands of Bolton. "It's really between the White House and Chris Dodd and Joe Biden,"...

(Note: The following is a text of the prepared remarks of Senator Frist delivered on June 1, 2005 at the Harvard Medical School Health Care Policy Seidman Lecture)I am a physician and a surgeon who by accident of fate finds himself in the halls of power at a time of dangers for his country and the world, the most compelling of which are exactly those a physician is trained to recognize and fight. To me it seems no more natural to be a United States senator, and in my case the majority leader of the Senate, than it did to...

Bill Frist was his high school's class president. He was a quarterback on the football team and a member of the honor society, and lived amid the upper crust of Nashville society. He dated the head cheerleader, and while he was in med school they were engaged to be married. But while interning in Boston, he met another woman, spent a dinner and a night with her, and fell in love. Two days before his wedding, he flew back to Nashville and broke off his engagement. "Everyone listened carefully to what I said, all the lame explanations I had that...

The days of the judicial-filibuster compromise are numbered. The scuttlebutt on Capitol Hill these days is that the McCain compromise will vanish as soon as a Supreme Court nomination appears. That's because the so-called compromise has that one huge loophole: It allows Democrats to filibuster (and thereby block an up-or-down vote on) any nominee they define as an "extraordinary" circumstance. And if Democrats' recent behavior is any indication, "extraordinary" will be used as a ruse for discriminating against judges who give even the slightest hint of holding pro-life views or having faith in God. "Any agreement that opens filibusters to...

It is difficult to understand the tepid nature of a majority party in two of the three branches of government, as they allow the minority party to continuously subject them to a public whipping and humiliation. It would seem somewhat akin to appeasing a spider in whose web you are ensnared intent on sucking out your life’s blood. It is give and take in the world of politics it is said but in our current political situation, the Republicans give and the Democrats take. Sounds right I guess if you’re a Democrat. It is General Douglas McArthur that is most...

Yesterday President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and their wives attended a Congressional Picnic at the White House. Today President Bush attended National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C along with members of Congress and former Cabinet Minister Tom Ridge. The President also voiced doubts over the elections taking place in Iran “The June 17th presidential elections are sadly consistent with this oppressive record. Iran's rulers denied more than a thousand people who put themselves forward as candidates, including popular reformers and women who have done so much for the cause of...

Enzi, Thomas mum on anti-lynching bill By Jessica Lowell rep5@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Fred Lebsack isn't very happy with his U.S. senators. The Cheyenne man said it was "pretty backward" that neither Sen. Craig Thomas nor Sen. Mike Enzi, both Republicans, signed on to support the Senate's apology, issued Monday, for that body's failure to take action when anti-lynching legislation first was proposed. "This is waffling at best, weaseling at worst," Lebsack said, pointing out that Wyoming's nickname is the Equality State. The U.S. Senate passed a non-binding resolution that apologizes to victims for the Senate's...

Last night President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and their wives attended the taping of An American Celebration at Fords Theatre: A Salute to our Troops,which will be aired on the 4th July 2005. Today President Bush met with 5 democratically elected Presidents from Africa in the Oval Office and later spoke in the Old Executive Office Building also in attendance with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist President Bush also spoke in the Rose Garden to 200 exchange students from Muslim countries who are part of The Partnership for Learning, Youth...

WASHINGTON, June 4 - With lawmakers returning from the Memorial Day recess, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, faces a crucial test of whether he can re-establish his authority after a rapid sequence of events that many say diminished his standing and exposed a lack of experience in Congressional intrigue. Adversaries, independent analysts and even some allies say the Senate leader was wounded by a compromise on judicial nominees achieved last month by a handful of Republicans who bucked him, including Senator John McCain, a potential presidential rival in 2008. The damage to his image was made worse, they say,...

BOSTON, June 1 - A federal initiative as ambitious as the Manhattan Project is needed to protect the nation from infectious diseases, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said Wednesday in a lecture at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Frist, who studied medicine at Harvard, said the effort would defend against both bioterrorism and diseases that are spread naturally. He said that the United States and the rest of the world were unprepared for a potential pandemic despite signs that emerging viruses like the avian flu are capable of causing sharp losses of life. "Any number of known and...

Pardon me while I wipe the egg off my face. Last week I was one of only a handful of conservatives praising the Senate compromise on judicial nominees, which preserved the filibuster while guaranteeing several of President Bush's most conservative nominees an up-or-down vote. I argued that Democrats would be chastened into using the filibuster judiciously -- only "under extraordinary circumstances" in the words of the compromise itself. Boy was I wrong. In less than a week, the Democrats were back to their old tricks, this time filibustering the nomination of John Bolton to be U.N. ambassador.

Despite continuing outrage among conservatives over last week’s sellout of Senate Republicans by seven “moderates” in their midst, it is clear that Arizona Senator John McCain, the apparent leader of the effort, presumes himself to be a big winner. While McCain has been positively deferential towards Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist when questioned directly, his actions dealt a severe setback to Frist’s efforts to solidify Republican Senate clout. Appearing widely in front of network cameras (a place he clearly relishes), McCain nevertheless pronounced that the compromise had been undertaken “in the finest traditions of the Senate.” Any presumed victories resulting...

Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Files for Frist's Senate Seat NewsMax.com Wires Thursday, May 26, 2005 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. filed the federal paperwork Wednesday to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist. The five-term congressman from Memphis is the second Democrat to enter the 2006 race. Frist has said he does not plan to seek a third term. "I'm excited. I'm ready to go," Ford said in telephone interview from Washington. He said his top issues will be energy reform, national security and education. Ford, 35, is a member of...

After talking for months about the “constitutional/nuclear/whatever option,” Senate majority leader Bill Frist was finally set to bring the measure to the table. The move to restore the rights of the majority in consenting to judicial nominees by a majority vote was finally going to signal the end of the Republican weasel-ness that plagues the party every time it gains power. Then the weasels stepped in. The “great compromise” resulted in the Republicans giving up everything while the Democrats gave up nothing. The give-take deal worked as it always has. Republicans give, Democrats take. The parties shake hands and the...

The judicial filibuster agreement reached by a group of 14 Republican and Democratic senators may be a truce, but it is not a treaty.It remains to be seen if the Senate’s tradition of up-or-down votes for judicial nominations will be re-established. And make no mistake, every tool for returning to that tradition remains on the table. As Majority Leader Bill Frist and even some signatories to this agreement have acknowledged, this includes the constitutional option.Those who founded this republic designed the Senate without the minority’s being able to filibuster anything at all. After a rules change made the filibuster possible,...

Because politics is the ultimate zero-sum game, John McCain's role in brokering the deal over President Bush's court nominees makes him the big winner from a mixed result. The senior Republican senator from Arizona was the moving force on his side of the aisle for the compromise that angered both parties' extreme elements. In Washington, where score is kept daily of such things, it may well go down as a significant step in his road to the presidency. Of course, conservatives hold great sway in the GOP nomination process, but those who see this matter as a nail in McCain's...

The biggest winner is Senator John McCain, who once again sold out both principles and party, to the applause of the mainstream media. Not only is he assured of good publicity, he has pulled the rug out from under Majority Leader William Frist, his probable chief rival for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. Winning a showdown with the Democrats by using the so-called "nuclear option" to stop the filibustering of judicial nominees would have given Senator Frist the kind of name-recognition that McCain already has and would be a major achievement to solidify the support of the conservative Republican base....

Pro-family leaders are expressing outrage over a compromise deal in the Senate that will allow a vote on some of the president's heretofore filibustered judicial nominees, but preserves the tactic for liberal Democrats to use against nominees they deem too conservative. Last week, 14 members of the U.S. Senate -- seven Republicans and seven Democrats -- proudly announced a Senate compromise to end Democratic filibusters against three of President Bush's judicial nominees: Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, and William Pryor. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters that filibusters will continue against two other Bush nominees -- William Myers and...

The deal on confirmation of judicial nominees seems to have been struck by seven Democrats essentially supported by their party's base and seven Republicans at odds with theirs. It contains one crucial phrase -- Democrats will filibuster only in "extraordinary circumstances" -- and it is undefined. Unless it is defined by the Democrats' recent behavior. But can anyone contrive to tickle coherence from that behavior? Democrats have agreed to stop filibustering the confirmation of three judges they have hitherto identified as extraordinarily dangerous to fundamental American liberties. One of the three, Priscilla Owen, is an impeccable representative of mainstream conservative...