MAKING CHICKEN SALAD:

Frist May Be in Line For Senate Leadership: Lawmakers Say Senator Can Help GOP's Image (Mike Allen, December 18, 2002, The Washington Post)

The stock of Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) soared in his party after he helped engineer last month's midterm victories as chairman of the Senate Republicans' campaign committee. Now he may in line for an even bigger job. [...]

Known for a cool demeanor that masks his intense work habits, Frist, 50, can get by on four hours of sleep a night, a holdover from his days as a heart-lung transplant surgeon. The Senate's only doctor, he comforted tense officials at a meeting in the Capitol basement after an anthrax-laced letter panicked Capitol Hill. His Senate Web site became a clearinghouse for information about anthrax symptoms and treatment.

President Bush plans a huge health care initiative next year, and he has asked his policy aides to look 20 years or longer down the road as they draw up proposals for possible inclusion in next month's State of the Union address. Several Republicans said Frist would be a huge help in selling the package to Congress and the public. Some Senate aides said Frist would help the party portray a more moderate image if he succeeded Lott.

"He's an urbane, soft-spoken doctor who inspires confidence and makes you want to let him cut you open with very sharp objects," a Republican close to the White House said.

Let's just take it as a given that the health care bill will be a disaster, however, if the GOP can pass one on their own when they're in control of the agenda, something the Democrats couldn't or wouldn't do when they were in control, then what's the logic of their party? At the end of the day, the Lott mess looks like a win/win for the GOP. Improbably enough, they're getting credit in the year 2002 for renouncing segregation and they end up with quite possibly their best congressional leader since Bob Taft. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 18, 2002 1:04 PM