Reverand Frist, M.D.
The blogosphere hath no fury like a centrist scorned. Tom Watson pulls together a veritable Yellow Pages worth of posts by moderate Republicans and "progressives of faith" who are outraged, genuinely outraged by the Reverand Bill and others on the Right accusing those on the Left of being anti-Christian.
Frist has really screwed himself into a light socket on this one. If he goes ahead and serves as headliner at the "Rev. Dobson's Revival Meetin' and Medicine Show" on Sunday night he will rightly be perceived by members of his own party as using religion as a cynical ploy to capture the evangelic vote. If he looks at his poll numbers and reads his mail and backs out, he will still be reviled by moderates, but he can add evangelicals to the posse, who will accuse him of being spineless. Which he is. In either case, he's due for a major political electrocution.
And I, for one, look forward to toasting marshmellows over his smoldering political career. He, of course, can look forward to a lucrative job running the family HMO, but that's another story.
I am not one to let myself suppose that the Social Security debacle, the Schiavo mishandling, the DeLay "I'm melting" press conferences, and the Holy Rolling of the Majority Leader are signs that the Right has jumped the shark. 2004 was just too great a shock to my system. Events in both October and November have warned me off hopefulness for the forseeable future.
But something is happenin' here. And it is going to be interesting to watch.
Frist has really screwed himself into a light socket on this one. If he goes ahead and serves as headliner at the "Rev. Dobson's Revival Meetin' and Medicine Show" on Sunday night he will rightly be perceived by members of his own party as using religion as a cynical ploy to capture the evangelic vote. If he looks at his poll numbers and reads his mail and backs out, he will still be reviled by moderates, but he can add evangelicals to the posse, who will accuse him of being spineless. Which he is. In either case, he's due for a major political electrocution.
And I, for one, look forward to toasting marshmellows over his smoldering political career. He, of course, can look forward to a lucrative job running the family HMO, but that's another story.
I am not one to let myself suppose that the Social Security debacle, the Schiavo mishandling, the DeLay "I'm melting" press conferences, and the Holy Rolling of the Majority Leader are signs that the Right has jumped the shark. 2004 was just too great a shock to my system. Events in both October and November have warned me off hopefulness for the forseeable future.
But something is happenin' here. And it is going to be interesting to watch.
posted by John at 4:47 PM
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