Bill Frist's Priorities

There's some crazy stuff going on in the Senate today. Senator Frist this morning came to the floor and said that he intended to hold a vote on cloture (to end debate) on the defense appropriations bill later this morning. This is suprising, since the bill has been subject to well less than a week of debate (typically the defense bill receives at least two weeks of floor time). Roll Call says this morning that the last time a Senate leader attempted to invoke cloture on a defense bill after so little debate was in 1997 ... and the motion was defeated then.

There must be a good reason for this extraordinary measure. Bill Frist must have other important things that he wants to get to this week, right? Like the important stem-cell legislation, perhaps?

Ah, but no. Frist announced this morning that if cloture is invoked on DoD appropriations (which would put a final vote on that sometime around Wednesday night) he will immediately ask for a cloture vote on - are you ready for this - gun-manufacturer liability protection. Said one Democratic aide about this step "It’s basically filler. He’s doing it instead of [legislation on] stem cells." This aide told The Hill "Democrats planned to try to provide a rhetorical contrast between the need for legislation on potentially lifesaving stem-cell research with a bill to help gun manufacturers," saying "There’s going to be a lot of talk about stem cells during the gun debate."

What remains unclear is if enough Republicans will join Democrats this morning and oppose cloture on the Defense bill, which would throw a wrench into Frist's little maneuver. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid committed this morning that if cloture is not invoked, Democrats will agree to complete work on the bill by Thursday at the latest and move on to other legislation, including the highway and energy conference reports. Frist countered by saying that if cloture is not invoked on DoD, he will set that aside until September (providing him with endless ammunition blaming those "obstructionist" Democrats with holding up defense spending).

As I said last week, Bill Frist needs to get his priorities straight. He's got to decide if he's going to do the work of the American people in the Senate, or if he's going to run for president. It's becoming ever more clear that he's not capable of doing both at the same time.

Updates as necessary.