GOP candidates for Presidential Nomination of 2008 are line up to be the ideological heir to President Bush. Who is going to clam the mantle of President Bush during the 2008 Presidential election?
Senator Bill Frist want to be the heir and the GOP is looking to him to push President Bush agenda thru the Senate.
The Cot Test
If Frist wants to be president, he has to successfully push the Bush agenda through the Senate. If he is going to successfully push the Bush agenda through the Senate, he's going to have to break Democrat filibusters on Supreme Court nominees, private retirement accounts, and future legal reforms. Frist can't go to Iowa and New Hampshire in 2007-8 and win votes by being the guy in charge of the Senate when it ground to a halt. He needs to point to significant 2005-6 Senate victories that he engineered.
The Democrats in the Senate can stop the Senator from Tennessee from moving on up to the White House with a strong push against President Bush agenda. The battle for the Congress in 2006 and the White House starts now. Robert Moran has some advice for the Senator is to go to the COTS.
Senator Frist: No cots, no glory.
Enter the Cot Test.
If Bill Frist is going to distinguish himself from his likely 2008 primary contenders (like Virginia senator George Allen), he needs to be Bush's game-breaking quarterback in the Senate. In fact, one could argue that successfully pushing Bush's agenda through the Senate would so identify Frist with the Bush legacy that he could run as Bush's ideological heir. But to do this, Frist will need to exhibit some of that famed Volunteer-state toughness, and this means breaking filibusters the old-school way, with non-stop debate, sleepless nights, and cots in the Senate required.
I have the some advice for any Democrats in Congress who is going to run for the Democratic Nomination in 2008. Who are keeping a close watch on you.
No cots, no glory, Stop the Right Wing agenda!