THE DEMOCRATIC DERANGEMENT CONT.

Senate Becomes O.K. Corral for a Surgeon and a Lawyer (SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, July 11, 2003, NY Times)

Now that the Senate has blocked President Bush's plan to cap jury awards in medical malpractice cases, the battle will only intensify during next year's elections. At its essence, the fight comes down to doctors versus lawyers.

In Washington politics, that means Bill Frist versus John Edwards.

Dr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who relishes his role as the Senate's only physician, has deftly used his new job as Republican leader to press Mr. Bush's case that frivolous lawsuits are driving up malpractice premiums, putting doctors out of business and patients at risk. The quashing of the bill Wednesday by Democrats was expected, but now Republicans plan to take their argument on the road, especially in states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida and West Virginia, where the malpractice crisis is acute.

Senator Edwards, a Democratic presidential contender, is precisely the kind of man Mr. Bush and Dr. Frist rail against: a plaintiff's lawyer who has made millions representing victims of malpractice. Following Wednesday's Senate vote, Republicans in his home state, North Carolina, are already attacking him as a "lackey for trial lawyers" - a message Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster, calls "the political subtext" of the malpractice debate.

Republicans, who have been pressing for tort law changes since long before Dr. Frist and Mr. Edwards joined the Senate, are now using the malpractice debate to stake a claim to voters' concerns about rising health care costs. But with the debate intensifying, these two men stand as convenient symbols, almost as if the conflict has come to life inside the Capitol in the person of the senators from North Carolina and Tennessee.

Here's a quick test for you:

(1) Off the top of your head,, think of five derogatory jokes about lawyers.

(2) Now think of one about doctors...

If you were sitting around RNC HQ trying to think of the things that would be most helpful for the GOP, ranking right up near the top would be for the public to perceive Republicans as the party of doctors and Democrats as the party of lawyers. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 12, 2003 9:20 AM