Frist Pulls Plug on Campaign

If ever a tone-deaf politician entertained delusions of grandeur, Sen. Frist's fancying of himself as a Presidential contender must enter high in the list. Frist, who climbed as far up the greasy pole as he did only as a consequence of the tedious Trent Lott's self-immolation on the pyre of the Lost Cause (which immolation Frist may have abetted), terminated his risible campaign for the Presidency in 2008 officially yesterday. It is difficult to see what legislative achievements he ever promoted that he saw as the springboard which would launch him into credible contention. His legislative agenda seemed devoid of any conservative governing philosophy to advance his case with primary voters, and his public appearances were of such uniformly tepid tenor that his name recognition with the general public rarely broke single digits.

It is fitting that he ended his campaign with the same clumsy attempt to identify with Christian conservatives that characterised his expedient 11th hour intervention in the Terri Schiavo fiasco while simultaneously greasing the skids for federal funding of stem cell research, quoting Ecclesiastes (via the Byrds, probably) that "for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close."

In his defence, Philo-Junius would lay even odds that Sen. Frist could correctly identify whether that quote came from the Old or New Testament (unlike some notable Democrats), but the Frist style of attempting to cobble together socially conservative soundbites continues, as does that of Sen. McCain, to sound like something being read out of a foreign-language phrasebook.