Nineteen months ago, Sen. Bill Frist's political ascent ranked among the most impressive in decades. After only eight years in public office, all in the Senate, the handsome heart surgeon was elected majority leader with help from his friend President Bush. Supporters openly speculated that Frist would run for president in 2008.
The Tennessee Republican and his allies have not ruled out a presidential bid, but Frist's rocket ride has slowed dramatically in recent months to an often bumpy, bruising slog. As he absorbs more setbacks than victories this summer, Capitol insiders and analysts suggest Frist's relatively thin legislative experience leaves him poorly equipped to handle one of Washington's toughest jobs. No one is suggesting Frist's colleagues will replace him before his planned retirement at the end of 2006, but the acclaim that greeted his December 2002 rise to the Senate's top post has died down considerably.
Democrats, who control 48 of the Senate's 100 seats, have been nettlesome, for sure. But insiders say that does not explain how a GOP majority -- bolstered by a Republican-controlled House and White House -- suffered a lopsided defeat on same-sex marriage, dropped a class-action lawsuit bill that once seemed certain, failed to reach a budget accord with the House, and failed to pass an energy bill, gun legislation and welfare reauthorization.
In hindsight, these observers say, Frist's backers may have glossed over aspects of his personality and background that tend to undercut his obvious talents.
He has never steeped himself in the Senate's intricate rules and traditions, robbing him of advantages enjoyed by most of his predecessors, including Republicans Trent Lott (Miss.) and Robert J. Dole (Kan.). As a surgeon, Frist is accustomed to having subordinates follow his instructions quickly, and adhering to a workplace hierarchy that is alien to the ego-driven Senate. And while he calls himself patient, Frist tends to shift to a different bill when he hits legislative roadblocks, rather than grind through tough negotiations that probably would involve concessions to political opponents.
Brookings Institution scholar Thomas E. Mann said Republicans should not be too surprised that Frist, 52, is struggling, especially given the Senate's narrow partisan divide.
"Remember, he moved to the leadership suddenly, unexpectedly," Mann said. "He was never the kind of senator who was attracted to the institution itself. He never learned those ways," and sometimes he operates "as though he hasn't quite made his peace with the Senate."
A Mixed Record
Despite an obviously steep learning curve as he settled into his job, Frist helped rack up substantial GOP victories in 2003, including Bush's third major tax cut, the Medicare drug benefit bill, a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions, and other initiatives that appealed especially to conservatives.
This year has proven more difficult, however, and Frist's defenders increasingly find themselves blaming Democrats' delaying tactics -- which require 60 votes to overcome. Democrats have "taken obstruction to a new low" by filibustering judicial nominees, pressing for votes on amendments that could torpedo legislation and trying to "dictate the terms" of House-Senate conferences, said Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
In a recent interview at his Capitol office, Frist expressed similar views in a more reserved manner. "The biggest challenge is addressing big issues . . . in an environment we knew would become increasingly partisan as we got close to the elections . . . with a backdrop of a closely divided Senate," he said.
Academics and some Republicans say Frist's and McConnell's blame-the-Democrats strategy is simplistic and misleading. When one party controls Congress and the White House, they say, it should be able to enact most of its agenda through brute force, patience, compromise or some combination thereof.
Frist is hampered by a divided and "dysfunctional" GOP caucus that will not give him the authority to do what is necessary to pass bills, said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). "Republicans need ultimately to give Bill Frist the authority to make decisions and move forward."
Frist's relations with Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) -- always civil but not as close as Daschle's dealings with Lott -- were strained by Frist's May 22 visit to South Dakota to campaign for Daschle's GOP challenger, John Thune. Rarely if ever has a Senate leader personally campaigned against his partisan counterpart, and some Democrats were livid.
"It is just bad form working on being bad taste," said Sen. Jon S. Corzine, (N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "It doesn't feel right historically; it doesn't feel right for the times."
