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The sorry truth is that President George W. Bush got just as much of his radical, right-wing agenda passed through the U.S. Senate under Democrat Tom Daschle’s “leadership” between 2001 and 2003 as he did under Republican Bill Frist, the GOP Majority Leader this past year. In fact, the Bush White House actually railroaded more reactionary legislation through Congress during Daschle’s stewardship of the Senate than it did after he was replaced by Frist.
Bill Frist should be truly ashamed of himself---being outdone by the likes of Tom Daschle in giving the President what he wants! Frist should forced to account for his lackluster leadership record to the Senate President Dick Cheney who must have been keeping score on Frist and Daschle these past three years.
But then, in fairness to Frist, how could anyone expect him to follow Daschle’s dazzling reactionary performance which surrendered unprecedented power from the American people to the Executive Branch though legislation called “The Patriot Act” or through the creation of “The Homeland Defense Department”?
And who could expect Frist to outdo Daschle’s blessing and historic granting to the President of the United States the power to launch a “pre-emptive” war against another nation? The Dakotan has certainly earned himself a solid place in American history with his championing of the Iraqi War Resolution in the fall of 2002. Are you taking notes, Dr. Frist?
Or how about the corporate bailout of all times that Daschle and his wife --- an excellent lobbyist for American Airlines --- steamrolled through the Senate giving nearly $20 Billion dollars to the Corporate Executives of a handful of airlines who then in turn fired tens of thousands of loyal workers, turned all security costs of their airlines over to the taxpayers…and then gave themselves millions and millions of dollars in executive bonuses and stock options? How on God's green earth can the new Senate Majority Leader ever match such a record in greasing the corporate fatcats at the expense of workers and taxpayers?
Of course, one just might be inclined to argue that Frist did succeed this year in allowing Bush to “reform” Medicare with the passage through the Senate of this socially retrogressive legislation. However, if truth be told, Frist really just reached out with corporate "favors" to the same sorry lot of Democrats in the Senate that the White House had counted on during Daschle’s days to betray their constituents: the Breaux/Miller clones --- all Daschle cronies.
Still, a proud Bill Frist will undoubtedly point to his pivotal role in 2003 in making sure that the Senate deprived a woman from her right to privacy with a doctor and her very right to health and life during a pregnancy with the passage of the so-called “Partial Birth Abortion” bill. Certainly Bill Frist can crow like a Tennessee rooster on this triumph for the right-wing against women, right? Ah, but then Frist would have to share the glory with the good Senator from South Dakota, wouldn’t he? Why? Because Tom Daschle made sure that he showed up on the Senate floor to stand and vote with Frist and the Republicans and against the majority of his own Democratic Party forever federalizing this assault on a woman’s fundamental right to privacy, health and her very life!
Bill Frist will have to work very hard in 2004 to make up for lost time during his first year as Senate Majority Leader if he ever expects to overcome the right-wing successes rung up by his predecessor, Senator Tom Daschle.
---David Zephyr, Claremont, CA.
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