Hold Sen. Frist accountable!

I am gratified that so many of you took the time to e-mail me about last week’s column on Spineless Sen. Bill Frist and his enablers, but most of you missed the point.

Make no mistake: I am deeply disappointed in the new majority leader of the United States Senate. It is apparent that he is content to tread in the footsteps of Trent Lott, the Republicans’ previous Mr. Milquetoast.

Frist is a heart surgeon. In the operating room, he had nerves of steel! He was trained to focus like a laser beam on the problem and do whatever was necessary to correct it. However, in running the Senate, he has turned out to be just another wimp.

The most important job Frist has is to see that President Bush’s judicial nominees get an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate and are not subjected to political litmus tests.

If Frist will not use the power at his disposal to break the unconstitutional filibuster of Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owens, how in the world can he expect to get a nominee to the Supreme Court through the Senate by saying “pretty please!”

Frist is off to a bad start, but it’s not too late. Go back to the very beginning of recorded history. Look at Moses who stood up to Pharaoh and led his people out of slavery in Egypt. Look at Gideon who had one of the greatest military victories ever recorded. Both of these men started out as wimps.

Frist may have been appointed to this high office for such a time as this. Unlike a lot of his colleagues, if he fails to get this done and voters turn on him, he has a real job waiting for him back home. He doesn’t have to look around to find purpose in his life.

Frist’s biggest problem is that he is surrounded by senators who have been there too long. They are content to play it safe. He has to stand up to them and say, “We’re going to stay in session 24-7 until we get a vote on these nominees and, if you break ranks, there will be hell to pay!” Then, he must be willing to instruct the sergeant-at-arms to round up absent Democrats who may attempt to stay home.

When the filibuster is on the front page of every newspaper, he can make his case directly to the American people. He has to make us care about the clear separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government and, in order to do that, he must show us how much he cares.

However, our immediate problem – and please don’t miss the point this time – is the leaders of the major conservative organizations in Washington and in your state who are content to cover for this bunch of slackers. They are serving as enablers.

They rail against the Democrats, but won’t hold their own accountable!

What happens when you come home from the grocery store and you find a candy bar in your kids back pocket? Do you say, “Oh, we just won’t say anything about it and you be a good boy next time.” That never works! You march that kid right back to the store to pay for it.

Some of you have asked me to name these organizations, but there are so many it’s hard to know where to begin. Think of all the organizations in Washington and in your state that you now trust to give you accurate information. Which ones send you updates and ask for your support? Which voting guides did you use in the last election? Check out the websites of these organizations. Call and ask for any mailings or e-mail alerts they may have sent out dealing with the filibuster. If they haven’t called the senate leaders to task over their capitulation, then they are part of this problem.

You are just one person, but the leaders of these conservative organizations each influence tens of thousands of votes. For example, when Roberta Combs of Christian Coalition or Dr. Wanda Franz of the National Right to Life Committee speaks, senators listen.

Want to do something that really matters? Go after these organizations while there is still time. The ones that respond appropriately deserve your financial support: The ones that do not, deserve your consternation.

Our Founding Fathers put everything they had on the line – their lives, their fortunes – to give us our system of government. The very least Frist and his Republican colleagues can do is go to the mat to preserve it.