Nuclear Fallout Settles On Dr. Frist

Republicans continue to froth at the mouth over the Nuclear Compromise, and much of the poison is settling on Dr. Frist, a.k.a. the ineffective and weak Senate Majority Leader.

This has got to be a major blow for Frist. The Senate Majority Leader has a well-documented history of some serious vanity issues.

Here are a few Republican frothings that suggest Frist may be the real loser in the Nuclear Compromise. The Dems may have won the longterm benefit of provoking yet more division among the already divided and already poisonous Republicans.

The Republican Manchester Union-Leader editorializes:

"SENATE MAJORITY Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is not doing his Presidential ambitions any favors by continuing to let Democrats run the U.S. Senate with the help of squishy Republicans like John McCain, Susan Collins and Lincoln Chafee [...]

Frist has again showed that he is no match for Senate Democrats. If he cannot effectively lead 55 Republican senators, how can he be trusted to lead the party and the country three years from now?" Via Daily Kos - who points out that this very Republican newspaper is in the "first-in-the-nation primary state."

Republican pundit Ben Shapiro at Town Hall:

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) -- Majority leader? What majority leader? McCain made Frist look foolish and probably prevented Frist's ascent to the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Frist should have pushed the nuclear option sooner and whipped his senators into line. Now he's left an emergency message with Fox's "Nanny 911."

Norman Pawlewski, of the Iowa Christian Coalition:

"[Frist] let them do this. He's the leader of the Senate. If he's so weak as a leader of the Senate that he can't control his own troops, then he's not much of a leader."

Call me crazy, but, at this particular moment, I'm clinging to the hope that the Dems know what they are doing.