Vaccination News Home Page                                            subscribe Vaccination NewsLetter

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/08/politics/08FRIS.html?tntemail0

For Frist, an Exultant but Tentative First Day

By DAVID FIRESTONE

ASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — The door of the Senate Republican leader's suite lacked a nameplate today as its new occupant walked up, in part because he had not yet decided what it should say.

Should it be a simple "Bill Frist," he mused aloud, or perhaps a full "William H. Frist?" And what about the "M.D." at the end — his father would have been furious, he said, if the nameplate did not reflect his medical degree.

Advertisement

"I don't know," he told the last Tennessean to occupy the office, Howard H. Baker Jr., for whom the suite is named. "I'm not sure if the parliamentarian will let me say M.D. on the door."

Former Senator Baker gently reminded Dr. Frist just who was in charge.

"You're the majority leader now," he said. "I think they'll let you do anything you want to do."

Bill Frist never aspired to the job he acquired this morning, and the banter at the doorway was only one of several times during his first day where he seemed slightly uncomfortable with the authority granted to him by his colleagues. There were moments of tentativeness as he stood in the front row of the Senate, shepherding the legislative minutiae, along with one telling instance of bitterness when a compromise he tried to forge on unemployment insurance appeared to fall apart.

But generally he compared the day to the greatest achievements of his life.

"It's like my first heart transplant," Dr. Frist said. "It's a good day, and I'm excited, but I can't forget the enormous responsibility I have now assumed."

All day, on and off the floor, colleagues grabbed his arm and congratulated him, and the chaplain added his name to the opening prayer. But there was no public discussion of the reason he was now in command. Senator Trent Lott, who would have been the leader had he not made a remark last month that suggested a fondness for segregation, sat two rows behind Dr. Frist in an unaccustomed position of subordinancy, an observer now rather than a major player. He was greeted warmly after returning to the Capitol for the first time in nearly a month, but the leadership huddles on the floor took place without him.

The baton had been firmly transferred to Dr. Frist's hands, but if he had developed a set of goals and a strategy to achieve them, he did not reveal his plans today. He held no news conference and did not introduce his top 10 legislative priorities, breaking with an opening-day tradition because of the short time he has had to prepare. Floor aides helped him through the details, and he openly acknowledged how much he intended to rely on his colleagues for advice.

"The learning curve I'm not too worried about," he said on the ABC program "Good Morning America." "I have a team of 50 other Republican senators and 99 senators on the floor. Together we'll capture the greatness of this institution and do what's best for the American people."

In his maiden floor speech as leader, he said only that he hoped to meet the challenges of the fight against terrorism, the need for economic growth and the resolution to a crisis in health care.

"I am convinced that we will find, based on our own principles, common ground to bridge this aisle between us," he said to his Democratic counterpart, Tom Daschle, who then crossed the aisle to shake Dr. Frist's hand and made his own vow of civility.

Of course, the bipartisan collegiality lasted only moments, and given the Republicans' one-vote majority, it could hardly have been otherwise. Dr. Frist had spent the last several days working to broker a compromise with the House on extending unemployment benefits, and had helped persuade his Republican colleagues in the other chamber to agree to a more generous package. But to his surprise, several Senate Democrats, led by Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, asked for an even larger unemployment grant that would cover more workers.

The Democrats briefly objected to Dr. Frist's compromise, and for about an hour, it appeared the deal that he had helped broker had fallen victim to partisan differences. As he experienced the first of what will undoubtedly be many moments of political frustration, he allowed his annoyance to show.

"After a lot of hard work, I'm obviously disappointed because this is the first move out for me after it had been cleared on both sides," he said. "But I guess that is what I can come to expect." He urged the Democrats to rethink their objection, and later in the afternoon they did so, producing his first legislative victory. Suddenly he was exultant.

"They threw a little curveball, but we hit it out of the park," he said.

If it was a home run, however, it was an expensive one, as Don Nickles, the Republican sponsor of the unemployment bill, jokingly reminded him.

"Two hours on the job, and already he's spent $7.2 billion," Mr. Nickels said. "That didn't take long."

Vaccination News Home Page

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.