"WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INITIATIVE." Just before I saw Ezra's post about The Politico, I was thinking about posting something sarcastic about the fact that the lead story on this much-hyped newspaper's second day was basically, "Many Senators Are Quite Old." But leave it to Ezra to find news anywhere. And there was news buried behind the dreariest headline since the famous "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." That twenty senators consulted Bill Frist for their health problems. So they're old -- and also stupid. What did they do, go up to Frist and say, "Doc, if I send you a video, can you tell me what's wrong?" The article doesn't mention that there is someone known as the Capitol Attending Physician -- an actual doctor who practices medicine full time, not a former heart surgeon turned politician. Is there some reason they can't go to an actual, working doctor? And they all have, as we know, good health insurance -- is there any reason that by age 60, they don't have their own regular doctor? There may be an answer in this sentence: "Among them were Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who flew on Frist's jet for private consultation and treatment at the Frist Clinic in Nashville, according to Senate sources." For several years there have been various rumors about Domenici being in rapidly declining health. Further down, the article notes that he "suffers from a variety of ailments -- and not quietly," adding that he"can appear disheveled at times. Domenici wore a suit with a with large tear in the coat one day recently, and in early December, after being seen ambling through the halls of the Hart Senate Office Building in a pair of hunting pants that resembled pajamas, Domenici aides scrambled to quash a rumor that the lawmaker was not as mentally acute as he had been." It also notes that Republicans are desperate for quash any rumors that Domenici won't run for reelection in 2008. So, perhaps a better headline for this story might have been, "Frist Ran Top-Secret Clinic for Senile GOP Colleagues." That would sell some papers.
--Mark Schmitt.
