Column 2005-6-19 Commentary

In today's column, Brooks sadly concludes that since entering the Senate, Bill Frist has lost his way. "These days he seems not so much the leader of the Senate conservatives, but someone who is playing the role" says Brooks. Frist "is behaving in ways that don't seem entirely authentic," as we can see from the Schiavo case, where Frist "did betray his medical training . . . to please a key constituency group." So far, Brooks tells us nothing we didn't already know: Frist has taken up the mantle of champion of the radical Christian right in order to bolster his chances at the presidency in 2008. It is nice to see this fact finally penetrating Brooks's thick skull, although it is also possible that the administrations has decided that Frist is a liability who must be discarded and the word has gone out to their mouthpieces (and Brooks is nothing if not an administration mouthpiece). However, it's most likely that Brooks's claim that Frist's behavior over the past few months "wasn't a case of cynical opportunism," followed by a description of Frist as apolitical and not particularly ideological until his arrival in the Senate and his rise to majority leader which makes it pretty clear that Frist is, in fact, a cynical opportunist, is simply a typical example of Brooks being a moron.