Frightened Frist

In response to Senator Feingold's announcement that he will seek to censure President Bush, Senator Frist launched into a bumbling speech about 9/11, terrorism, Iran, and quashing dissent:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're against it. Are you going to allow it to come up for a vote?

FRIST: Well, George, this is the first I've heard about it. I really am surprised about it because Russ is just wrong. He is flat wrong. He is dead wrong. And as I was listening to it, I was hoping deep inside that that the leadership in Iran and other people who have the U.S. not in their best interest are not listening because of the terrible signal it sends.

What a terrible signal it sends to those who seek to destroy our freedoms when Congress exercises its right to censure to the President. How dare we remind the terrorists that we're a democratic society, with rules and accountability.  What a terrible signal, indeed. Let's move on.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: You're saying that censure resolution weakens America abroad?

FRIST: Yes. Well, I think it does because we are right now in a war, in an unprecedented war, where we do have people who really want to take us down and we think back to 9/11 and that war on terror is out there. So the signal that it sends that there is in any way a lack of support for our Commander in Chief, who is leading us with a bold vision in a way that we know is making our homeland safer is wrong. And it sends a perception around the world and, again, that's why I'm saying as leader at least of the Republican side of this equation, that it's wrong, because leadership around the world of our sworn enemies are going to say, well, now we have a little crack there. There is no crack. The American people are solidly behind this president in conducting this war on terror.

"There is no crack" except the crack Frist must be smoking to make the wildly inaccurate claim that Americans are "solidly behind" Bush on the War on Terror.  Only 52% of Americans support Bush's handling of the War, a 30 point drop since the invasion of Iraq.  

Frist is doing what all Republicans do when they are weak and faced with accountability: they lie.  He claims that it's inappropriate to question the Commander-in-Chief, but his party was relentlessly doing the same thing in numerous contexts back in the late 1990s. This is the same Frist who pursued impeachment as President Clinton exercised his Commander-in-Chief authority to bomb Iraq in 1998.  At the time, Frist took a position in polar opposite to the one he holds today.  He argued that the action in Iraq should not preclude a vote on impeachment: there should be a "temporary delay" in the impeachment vote, he said, but "it should be brought to a close quickly because the House should perform its constitutional duty." (The Hotline, Volume 10 No. 174, December 17, 1998).

And this is the same Frist who had no qualms about making this statement while our Commander-in-Chief publicly outlined a strategy for U.S. ground troops in Kosovo (hat tip to Armando):

I will have no part in the creation of a constitutional double-standard to benefit the President. He is not above the law. If an ordinary citizen committed these crimes, he would go to jail. Many senators have voted to remove federal judges guilty of perjury, and I have no doubt that the Senate would do so again. Those who by their votes today confer immunity on the President for the same crimes do violence to the core principle that we are all entitled to equal justice under law. [...]

"The President broke his oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him God. He likewise broke his oaths to take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Frist is frightened.  He knows that there is a real possibility his King may be held accountable for his gross abuse of power.  And so the hypocrite lies, lies time and time again to attack those who seek to enforce the rule of law.  No amount of lying can erase the record though, and no amount of lying can cover up this President's crimes.