Conservatives Without Conscience

To date, the nuclear option has not been exercised, although Senate majority leader William Frist was ready to pull the trigger before a group of seven moderate Republican senators joined with seven Democrats to prevent the authoritarian conservatives from imploding the Senate.[*] The Gang of Fourteen (sometimes called the “Mod Squad” because they are all moderates) reached an agreement, which they executed in writing, that eliminated the use of the nuclear option—at least temporarily.[57] The gist of their understanding was that the seven Democrats would not vote with their party on filibustering judicial nominations except in “extraordinary circumstances,” and the Republicans in turn agreed not to vote with their party and the Republican leadership for the exercise of the nuclear option. (By subtracting seven votes from either side, the moderates, in essence, took control.) It was basically a good-faith effort, since only a few details were worked out, including that the Democrats would prevent further filibustering of three of Bush’s nominees. It was a perfect example of the way the Senate should work, using the give-and-take of compromise. The Gang of Fourteen has continued to meet, but their agreement is binding only for the 109th Congress, which will end in January 2007. Authoritarian conservatives in the Senate will likely try the nuclear option again if Republicans control the Senate in 2007, should Democrats try to use the filibuster on judicial nominees. Needless to say, there is nothing conservative about destroying Senate precedent and tradition, but then, authoritarians are not troubled with conscience, even if they call themselves conservatives.

The Authoritarianism of the Senate Leader: Who Wants to Be President

It was Senate majority leader William Frist who led the Senate to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Frist had been a well-known heart transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt University’s hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, before he was elected to the Senate in 1994. Before becoming majority leader he had made almost no serious news whatsoever since arriving in Washington, although he was occasionally featured in human interest stories. He provided emergency care for the man who shot a Capitol Police guard, and, in turn, was shot by the guard; and after the anthrax attacks in the Senate, his explanation of how the deadly poison worked was enlightening.

A December 31, 2001, profile in Newsweek described him as “brainy and intense, confident to the point of arrogance,” “a daredevil by nature,” “ambitious, eager to be noticed, [but not] a team player at heart—and White House strategists know it.” His seemingly iconoclastic independence was appealing, and many welcomed his selection by his Senate peers to replace Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) as majority leader. After being told by an insider that if Vice President Dick Cheney’s health took a serious turn for the worse, Bill Frist was at the top of Bush’s list to replace him, I decided to read the hagiography by Charles Martin, Healing America: The Life of Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist, M.D., which revealed that Frist has been slated to be president of the United States since he was only a few days old.

It is a novel story. It seems that when Bill Frist was busy campaigning for the Senate in 1994, his associate, Dr. Karl VanDevender, was responsible for running the Frist Clinic, which recently had admitted a longtime Frist family employee, the trusted yardman, housekeep, and handyman, whom they affectionately called “Mr. John.” On election night Karl VanDevender was monitoring Mr. John, who was fading fast of kidney failure. At one point in the evening, as VanDevender kept an eye on the television and reported the returns, Mr. John whispered his last words. “Dr. Karl,” he said, “since the day this happened, more than forty-four years ago, I’ve only told two people—my pastor and my wife.” VanDevender brought a chair to Mr. John’s bedside and leaned in close to get every word of Mr. John’s astonishing story.