The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Frist: It's hard to take Sen. Dr. Bill seriously when his reputation (and record) precedes him

Somehow Sen. Dr. Bill Frist or his people got the idea that I am in some way, shape or form sympathetic to them. For a while now I have been receiving the senator-doctor's slimy, mendacious PAC e-mails. I'm always tempted to delete them unopened, but then curiosity gets the better of me. I always regret it.

This time out, I'm left wondering--as I often am these days with the wacky pronouncements that come from the Loony Right--how much of this nutso drivel the loon-doctor actually believes himself. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, read for yourself:


From: Bill Frist, M.D. (VOLPAC)
Subject: Frist: Historic Education Legislation Passed
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:09:08

Imagine an America in which cost is no longer an obstacle on the path to a college education ... an America in which our children enter the global marketplace fully equipped to compete with their overseas counterparts. In China. In India.

Today, we took a dramatic step toward creating that America.

I’m proud to announce the passage of my SMART Grants legislation. SMART grants are an entirely new aid initiative, aimed at promoting math and science and ensuring that our children are prepared for the global economy of tomorrow.

As it stands, China and India are generating scientists and engineers at an alarming pace, while America falls dangerously behind. Consider:

• U.S. 12th graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in math and science.
• In 2004, China graduated about 500,000 engineers, India 200,000 and America just 70,000.
• By 2010, more than 90% of all scientists and engineers in the world will be living in Asia.

If these numbers don’t alarm you, they should.

But today, we begin to reverse that trend. Now more than ever, we MUST secure America’s competitiveness in the global market. My SMART grants will provide Pell Grant eligible students (low-income students who already receive $4,050 per year for college):

• $4,000 grants per year for maintaining a 3.0 GPA and majoring in math, science, engineering, technology or foreign languages critical to national security during their third and fourth years of study at a higher education institution.

That means that a low-income student will obtain up to $4,000 yearly to pay for the costs of college if they choose to major in those fields – in addition to the $4,050 they receive yearly in Pell Grants. The result? An average savings of 52% on the overall cost of college.

Rest assured, this is NOT new spending. It’s paid for … as part of the deficit reduction bill.

The simple fact is, if we don’t start looking to the future, America will be left behind. The goal of this legislation is to encourage more American students to major in these crucial subjects so that we can produce a workforce prepared to compete – and succeed – in the global marketplace.

Leading on principle, this is how we’re going to secure a more COMPETITIVE America.

Education will determine our future. And – despite the Democrats’ best attempts at obstruction – today marks a new day for American education.

More to follow on this legislation in the days ahead. In the meantime, I hope you will visit my blog to voice your opinion on this legislation, to do so please click here.

Bill Frist, M.D.


Well, I mean, really now!

Has any individual done more to stupidify this country than the senator-doctor? At times like this he likes to play the concerned scientist, but this is a man who has put himself at the forefront of the most massive and bloody assault on science and the acquisition of knowledge and understanding in the history of the human race, a man who, since his accession to political power, has sought at every opportunity to command the loyalty of benighted Americans who are crusading to doom their children--and, alas, everyone else's--to a lifetime of ignorance and imbecility.

There is plenty of ground for concern about the country's failure to produce adequate numbers of scientists. I wish there were more public discussion of the issue, but NYT columnist Tom Friedman hasn't had much journalistic company here. Sen. Dr. Bill's enlistment in the cause might be welcome, even with the lies and slash-and-burn partisanship. It's hard to forget who he is, though, and surely one reason for the Science Gap is the sneering, contemptuous, often violently dismissive attitude toward science on the part of the very politico-religious forces the senator-doctor aspires to lead to glory. (Does anyone remember the Terry Schiavo debacle? I imagine the senator-doctor hopes not.)

The notion that it's the Democrats who have presented obstacles to educational opportunity is . . . hmm, how to put his? . . . well, a grotesque lie, a lie of almost psychopathic proportions. Even this unprecedented initiative that the senator-doctor is trumpeting is by his own acknowledgment a glorified form of Pell grant. And shall we look at the record to see who supports the Pell program and who has been systematically gutting it? As I understand it, those Pell grants that the senator-doctor refers so confidently to students receiving are catastrophically underfunded, to the point of being virtually un-funded.

And when he assures his readers, presumably people who can smell a "tax-and-spend liberal" a mile away, "Rest assured, this is NOT new spending. It’s paid for … as part of the deficit reduction bill," well, if he tried to get away with saying this under oath, I'll bet any halfway competent prosecutor could nail his sorry hide for perjury.

I suppose it's possible that this initiative could nevertheless have solid educational merit. It's just so hard to take seriously when it comes from the likes of Sen. Dr. Bill.