Word: frist
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...start of 2005, Bill Frist seemed to have the political Midas touch. A successful surgeon, the Tennessee Republican had blossomed in his second career, rising from his election to the U.S. Senate in 1994 to the post of majority leader in 2002. But last year, while Frist tried to both manage an unwieldy Senate and prepare for a 2008 presidential run, he often sounded off-balance--as when he inserted himself into the Terri Schiavo controversy, boldly but mistakenly arguing that her doctors misdiagnosed her vegetative state...
...Frist will again find himself at the center of an emotional issue this week as the Senate debates illegal-immigration policy, and his performance could show whether he has regained his political footing. His party is divided: some G.O.P.ers simply want tougher border enforcement, while others, including President Bush, want temporary work permits for illegal immigrants. In December, the House sided with the hard-liners, passing a bill with no such guest-worker program and with provisions that would make it a federal crime to offer assistance to illegal immigrants. New York Senator Hillary Clinton, a possible 2008 contender...
...counterpart. Last year "our bottom-line goal was not to lose any seats," says Charles Schumer, the New York Senator who heads the committee. "Now, if things fall in line, we might even pick up the Senate." Republicans could even lose the Tennessee seat of retiring majority leader Bill Frist to Representative Harold Ford, a Democrat...
...Republicans are playing the positioning game as well. Tennessee Republican Bill Frist, who for months has been soliciting opinions from visitors to his political action committee (volpac.org) on immigration, annoyed his Senate Republican colleagues by pushing out an immigration reform bill last week. As the Senate Majority Leader, Frist usually allows Senate committees to work through legislation first, but on an issue very important to the GOP base, he didn't wait for the Senate Judiciary Committee before proposing his own legislation, appealing to worries about illegal immigration. Frist?s bill includes dozens of provisions to add funding and resources...
...their colleagues. And that?s a tricky balance. Even while proposing lots of bills to combat spending, McCain late last year proposed $2 million to create a center at an Arizona law school in honor of former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, which some have derided as pork. Frist has recently been attacking the growth of spending in Washington, but as the Majority Leader of the Senate for the last three years, he?s been a critical player in getting bills like the Medicare prescription drug plan passed, much to the chagrin of fiscal conservatives. And it?s unlikely...