November 23, 2003

Up Capitol Hill Without A Paddle

By Michael Shaw

You thought the administration was only unilateralist in foreign policy?

This past week, Bill Frist, the tin eared physician who the White House surgically implanted into the Senate Majority Leader’s chair last year (the Paul Bremer of Capitol Hill) tried his stealthy best to slam two enormous, special interest-laden pieces of legislation past Congressional Democrats in the closing hours of this year’s session. Cooked up in the “back room” by industry lobbyists; Dick Cheney; the Republican leadership; and key Democratic impersonators, these bills were conceived in such a clandestine way that the process even alienated some of Frist’s strongest congressional allies.

We won’t know the outcome of these extremely destructive bills until Monday or Tuesday, but it’s obvious collaboration from this White House is not in the game plan.