The Utter Hyprocrisy of Bill Frist

This from Atrio's Eschaton blog:

Fristy Flashback

From October:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist attacked Sen. John Edwards on Tuesday over a comment the Democratic vice presidential candidate made regarding actor Christopher Reeve.

Edwards said Reeve, who died Sunday, "was a powerful voice for the need to do stem cell research and change the lives of people like him.

"If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again," Edwards said.

Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, called Edwards' remark "crass" and "shameful," and said it gave false hope that new treatments were imminent.

...

Frist, who was a heart surgeon before coming to the Senate, responded Tuesday in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign.

"I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people," Frist said. "We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.

"It is cruel to people who have disabilities and chronic diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a physician who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope."

Besides being a hypocrite, Bill Frist is a moron. He offered his diagnosis (and questioned the diagnosis of doctors who have actually examined Mrs, Chiavo over the years) based on his viewing that video of Mrs. Chiavo with her mother that CNN endlessly replays (what is it about the media that they constantly replay videos like the Chiavo tape and the Howard Dean scream like it was some sort of brainwashing technique?). A tape that was taken several years ago over a 4 hour period and then edited down to a few seconds to show smiles and eye movement that would suggest consciousness; a totally faked effort. And this guy is a professional doctor? Please!!!

>A tape that was taken several years ago over a 4 hour period

>and then edited down to a few seconds to show smiles and eye

>movement that would suggest consciousness; a totally faked

>effort.

Ever been to one of those mega care centers where they maintain banks of people on respirators? Horrifying!!

I suspect that if people were shown a recent, 60 second clip of the reality of Mrs. Schiavo's condition today, unedited, many fewer people would think she was "living". The reality of people in these conditions is very sad indeed. Few who have been inside one of these centers would confuse the state of being there with "living".

--EBG

Early polls seem to suggest that Bill Frist and Tom DeLay have been politically damaged by the Schiavo controversy and their handling of it. Time will tell. DeLay has his other problems, of course, but for Frist, who some say has Presidential ambitions, he may have blotted his copybook, so to speak. Even the President's polling numbers are heading south, and his stand on social security is not helping his numbers.

It's far too early to know what the eventual impact will be, but if Americans continue the debate on medical issues and help for the sick, something good may come out of this. Of course, this is not a given and once Mrs Schiavo dies this may completely subside. What makes a positive outcome even less likely is that the Republicans don't realy want to deal with health care issues, other than cutting funding to them to enable tax cuts for the rich to continue and be expanded. So we will have to see where all this "concern" for the living will take things, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

>Even the President's polling numbers are heading

>south, and his stand on social security is not helping his

>numbers.

42%? 45% Something like that. The lowest numbers he's had yet. I think Social Security has much to do with it. People aren't buying his plan.

> People aren't buying his plan.

Plan? What plan?

Let's face it, we all love a little government largess headed our way. It is only pork if the checks aren't made out to you.

--EBG

> What makes a positive outcome even less

>likely is that the Republicans don't realy want to deal with

>health care issues, other than cutting funding to them to

>enable tax cuts for the rich to continue and be expanded. So

>we will have to see where all this "concern" for the living

>will take things, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Anyone who has a true "concern" for "the living" will be easily recognizable: they'll be the ones doing everything possible to make sure that the nightmare trainwreck of Canada's socialized "health care" system doesn't end up destroying our health care system.

Isn't it about time that responsible adults agree that one's concern for a person is NOT measured by how much government money they want be to be handed out to that person?

Interestingly, in his 1989 book called Transplant, Frist advocated changing the definition of "brain dead" to include anencephalic babies. Which is basically the same state Terri Schiavo's in, except instead of physical trauma as the cause, they were born that way. This change would have made it possible to harvest the organs for transplants. Of course, this was something that pro-life groups and the Catholic Church opposed. This just goes to show how Frist's support for Schiavo is politically motivated.

I agree with you, Doug. I believe that President Clinton had the right idea with his welfare to work program. This was modeled on something done successfully in one of the Great Lakes states, I believe.

I have no problem with the idea of a government safety net. Someone loses their job, their family need things so the government is there to help.

BUT

When it becomes a way of life, that is when I object to it. Welfare is okay as helping hand, but it should never ever be a permanent thing.

>I agree with you, Doug. I believe that President Clinton had

>the right idea with his welfare to work program. This was

>modeled on something done successfully in one of the Great

>Lakes states, I believe.

None other than Tommy Thompson's Wisconsin, I believe.

You may consider Canada's universal health care system a "trainwreck", Doug, but God forbid you should ever find yourself without funds and needing medical care. Then you'll really know what a trainwreck is!

In Canada, there may be problems with waiting lists for elective surgeries, and these are being addressed, but if you face a life threatening illness, you are treated right away and, no questions of health insurance, no medical bills, all done without stress of how one is going to pay.

In the USA, what happens to people without funds or of limited means. NO treatment or bankruptcy. When I lived in Miami, a woman who needed a liver transplant was turned away for lack of funds. Even right wing commentators on the networks said it was disgusting what happened to her. And in this latest revamping of the bankruptcy laws by Bush and Co., we are told the leading cause of bankruptcy in the USA is medical expenses.

In Canada? Not one person goes bankrupt because of medical expenses. NOT ONE DOUG!! So take your system and stuff it!! Oh, and enjoy!

I forgot to mention two other things, Doug. Canada has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the developed countries, and the USA amongst the highest. This is a direct reflection of medical care of expectant mothers. And Canada has significantly higher longevity rates than the USA, again, the USA one of the lowest amongst developed countries. Again, since our populations are similar in makeup, medical care (and guns) are the significant factors.

Three years ago, my family went through similar questions concerning my late sister and whether or not to pull her feeding tube.One by one, our mother, three siblings and her daughter decided over the course of many months when they thought the tube should be pulled. She had needed the amputation of a limb, oxygen, the feeding tube. I witnessed such horror. No one wouls want to live this way. The shell of a body being kept alive by that feeding tubewas not my sister. Remembering her from five or ten years earlier, and where she had ended up nearly three years ago, was certainly a very great distance. If there are any doubters to this horror, I could go on and on.

It's not just you and a few other unfortunate people who face these agonizing decisions concerning loved ones. Many, many people do every day, including many of the politicians who jumped on the bandwagon of the Schiavo case for purely political reasons, as is now becoming clear.

The weekend revelations that Tom DeLay had been a party to having the tubes pulled from his father when he was found to have irreversible brain damage merely confirm the total hypocricy of the far right and the leadership of the Republicans. Of course, there were many craven Democrats who sheep-like, followed the herd. Now that the polls show that the vast majority of Americans consider these are not decisions for politicians to get involved in in individual cases, these same politicians are heading for the hills. What a bunch!! x(

The state of Florida is a total mess for years now. No laws to protect senior citizens against every scam artist in town. Low life contractors who build homes that fall apart in a hurricane. Career pedophiles who kidnap sleeping children from their beds at night. The highest high school drop out rate in the country. The least amount of money spent on education. Miami, the highest crime rate in the country. Silverado Savings and Loan, the biggest bank failure in America, bailed out by the FDIC. By the way, a Mr. Neil Bush, CEO of that bank. He just happens to be the brother of our President. The First Lady of Florida, Columba Bush, arrested at Atlanta airport for failure to pay duty on thousands of dollars of goods brought into the country from a Paris shopping spree. The daughter, Nicole Bush arrested twice for illegal drugs. The son, Jeb Bush,Jr. stopped by Tallahasse Police for having sex in the back seat of his car. On and on it goes. Jeb Bush can be so proud of his record as Governor. Now he might run for President, so he can do the same for the rest of America. Does the Republican State Senate in Tallahasse do anything to correct this mess? They are too busy getting involved in a private family matter.