Social Security "crisis" -- not so imminent after all

Looks like the preznit's beloved private accounts are, shall we say, DOA.

"In terms of whether it will be a week, a month, six months or a year, as to when we bring something to the floor, it's just too early," Frist said.

Frist is reluctant to put off a vote until 2006, when lawmakers will be focused on midterm congressional elections and the atmosphere will be more politically charged, aides said. But with polls showing widespread skepticism of Bush's proposal and some Republicans opposed to the approach, GOP leaders signaled yesterday that they may have no choice but to put off action.

That a politician as closely allied to the White House as Frist would even raise the possibility of putting off the proposal until next year -- possibly dooming it -- was an unexpected blow to the administration.

Personally, I would love to watch this play out for several more months, as GOP politicians twist in the gale force winds of their constituents' opposition, and we should not end our vigilance until the corpse of privatization is safely buried, but you can be sure that if Dr. Frist is pushing this off to 2006 -- the year of mid-term elections -- then privatization is unplugged for now.