Words, words, words. Nothing he says about moderation can be taken seriously, because what he really means his submission to his rightwing agenda. But what's delicious is to see him sitting next to Bush this morning at the White House, his face looking curdled and lifeless. He's dished himself completely, and at some level he must know it. The dustbin of history waits for him.

I have been to a physician before and therefore am qualified to diagnose ex-Sen Frist with "irrelevancy". This condition arises when you don't have a job, any influence and no one cares about what you have to say.

Don't let the door whack you on your ass/head on your way out!

Frist may well go down as one of the most ineffective majority leaders in Senate history. He was a partisan hack in the back pocket of the president. His Senate accomplished very little and he made no substantial mark.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

In my mind, I imagine the exchange to resemble Michael hugging Fredo. "Bill, I know it was you. You broke my heart."

So boiled down, what Frist said was, "Plan for a 2 year revolving door alternating between government and lobbying. We could make millions."

How interesting, and how ironic -- NOW Sen. Frist bemoans the highly charged, highly partisan atmosphere that HE did so much to promote?

Take note also of this Frist comment: "Is it about war rooms whose purpose is not to contrast ideas but to destroy?" Sounds like a backhanded compliment to our very own Salon War Room, doesn't it? Maybe Salon and other progressive political sites have more effect than we dreamed! THIS "war room" doesn't seem focused on destruction, to be sure -- it IS for the most part a true exchange of ideas.

The U.S. Senate has traditionally been called the world's greatest debating forum, but it's obviously fallen far below that ideal in recent years. The poisonously partisan atmosphere in Washington has plenty of parents, but springs far more from the radical right and the GOP than anywhere else (IMHO). Sen. Frist bears much of the responsibility and blame -- too bad politicians so often cannot be honest, candid and truly non-partisan until AFTER their political lives are over.

Gee, does this explain why so-called "blue ribbon commissions" like the ISG are a favored means for actually DOING something these days? Makes you wonder why we even pay our elected reps. if they cannot or will not DO THEIR JOBS. Also makes the automatic January pay raise for Congress that much more difficult to swallow.

Hearing Bill Frist, George H.W. Bush and others bemoaning "destructive" partisanship reminds me of something from years ago: a book by a German author with the imperfectly elegant name of Hans Rumpf called "The Bombing of Germany."

His book bemoaned and waiuled over the destructive Allied bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Frankfurt and other cities. You see, it was OK to bomb and burn the cities of Poland, England, Russia and other countries. It was just when the bombing came home that it was horrifying.

The outgoing Republicans are cut from the same cloth. When they ran ads that morphed Democratic candidates into Osama bin Laden (remember him?) they saw themselves as simply telling their version of the truth. When ads hit the airwaves showing, for example, what happens to soldiers not equipped with proper body armor, the Republicans began crying about "the politics of personal destructon!"

I can't remember Frist ever showing the kind of compassion that a patient should expect from his caregiver.

Truth is, I tuned Frist out a long time ago. He is such an arrogant blowhard. (Come to think of it, I CAN think of other doctors like that.)

The only thing that sticks in my mind about Frist is that he proposed the "nuclear option" some time back -- the elimination of the use of the filibuster to block Senate approval of Supreme Court nominations. How a leader who openly uses the term "nuclear option" in politics can turn around and call for bipartisanship is beyond me.

I am also certain the Republican leadership is thanking God that Frist did not succeed in making good on his "nuclear option" threat. With the GOP in the minority, they need the filibuster a lot more than the Dems do.

And lets not forget the whole Terry Scheivo case. It truely is amazing to watch the most extreme elements of the Republican party whining and crying like little babies now that their fake "values" and utter corrupt agenda's have repeatedly been exposed. He is soaked in bad Karma.

Harry Reid knows how to play hardball and yet remain a colleague because it's all about the same thing, keeping this country strong. Different visions perhaps but that's what politics and the old Republican party used to be about, too. For Frist it was obviously all about gaining political advantage, which is why Reid's gentlemanliness would come as such a surprise. This simply demonstrates why Frist would be a terrible presidential candidate and we are well rid of him.

pompous arse. Geeze, all of these epiphanies, all at the 11th hour. Just goes to show you what type of a man he really is. If he can ascertain how much better it could have been then you know he created the morass with ill intent. The USA is truly better off without clowns and hate mungers like Frist. I'm glad he's not my doctor. I also wish that Reid had lifted his wallet in that hug. With all the money Frist and his cronies ammassed by the ill advised tax breaks for the rich, I'd bet his is loaded...

Looked it up in my German-English dictionary. In German it means a span of time, a period. Good choice, His span of time is up. Period.

Senator Frist, do you really think that the Senate has just now become partisan, just because the Dem's wrested control? Your leadership was exemplified by partisan bullying to exact political gain. I'm not completely sure how providing a medical diagnosis via videoconference, bringing the Senate back to vote on a grandstanding effort to appease a partisan contigent to interfere in one family's life, expresses a commitment to bipartisanship, but I'm willing to listen.

The obvious is that with the stranglehold on legislation that you and Republicans held sway over the past six years - it appears to me that it's more than a leap of faith to accept that the Senate under your leadership did next to nothing because the Democrats, those mean partisan bullies, stymied or blocked your efforts. You got pretty much everything that you attempted and now, with as much respect as I'm willing to proffer, what you deserved.