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Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again)

By TChris, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 11:08:58 AM EST
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by TChris

Senator Frist wants to be President Frist. Not long ago, Frist believed he could secure his party's nomination by pandering to religious extremists. To that end, Dr. Frist thought it appropriate to question the conclusion drawn by Terry Schiavo's physicians that Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. Frist was wrong (basing a diagnosis on a videotape rather than an in-person examination turns out not to be a prudent way to practice medicine), but being wrong on the facts has never deterred the religious right from pressing forward. Why, then, has Frist again backed away from an extreme position of importance to the religious right?

Frist championed legislation to force federal intervention in Schivo's case, but the federal courts were appropriately unwilling to get involved in a dispute that had been fully litigated in fair state court proceedings. Today Frist claimed the experience "taught him that Americans do not want the government involved in such end-of-life decisions." First said he doesn't agree with "the moral sense" of the federal court's decision in the Schiavo case, and he defended his call for federal review. He nonetheless claims to recognize the reality that most people don't agree with the religious right's desire for federal intervention in end-of-life decisions.

Frist snubbed the religious right when he stopped supporting the president's position on stem cell research. By signaling a retreat from his support for federal intervention in end-of-life decisions, Frist snubbed them again. Has Frist decided that pandering to the religious right is no longer a straight path to the presidency?

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    Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) | 6 comments (6 topical)
    Re: Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) (none / 0) (#1)
    by Johnny on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 11:32:16 AM EST
    Has Frist decided that pandering to the religious right is no longer a straight path to the presidency?
    Maybe he has realized that pandering to the religious wrong is a sure-fire way to duplicate Iran-style politics... Nah... He is harvesting votes.

    Re: Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) (none / 0) (#2)
    by Dadler on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 11:38:29 AM EST
    I don't think Frist is actually thinking anything at all, I think his market research and PR people are writing this script. Too bad he isn't a heart(s) AND minds surgeon. Then I might buy it.

    Re: Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 12:56:52 PM EST
    This jerk is one of the least principled people in Congress, and about the worst Majority Leader in modern memory. His abysmal record of tacking to and fro according to the direction of the political winds - but always ending up where he started! - has already put paid to his so-called "presidential ambitions"...don't forget he still has the SEC stock investigation hanging over his hang-dog head.

    Re: Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) (none / 0) (#4)
    by Dusty on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 04:29:01 PM EST
    Frist is simply setting the tone of his Presidential Campaign..be all things to all people..until your elected..

    Re: Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) (none / 0) (#5)
    by cpinva on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 04:41:24 PM EST
    don't worry too much about sen. frist's apparent snub of his religious right base, he has a bigger fish to fry in the new congress. i refer to the marriage amendment, an issue being pushed, yet again, by the most cynical of opportunists, the republicans. it probably hasn't a snowball's chance of success, but that's not the point. in fact, the worst thing that could possibly happen, for the repubs, is that it DID succeed. that would knock out one rung of their loathsome party platform. whatever would they have to stir up the religious-right nutcases with then?

    Re: Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) (none / 0) (#6)
    by Johnny on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 06:29:46 PM EST
    whatever would they have to stir up the religious-right nutcases with then?
    War on Christmas *snicker snicker*

    Frist Backs Away From Religious Right (Again) | 6 comments (6 topical)