Online Casino Foe Resurfaces as Health Care Flip-Flopper

Bill Frist, the man who snuck the online casino payment processing ban through Congress now wants everyone to know he supports the health care bill, when it benefits special interests, but not really because that offends his radical right base.

The former Senate Majority Leader who snuck the UIGEA online casino payment ban into a port security act in 2006 has reappeared after supposedly retiring from politics that same year. Bill Frist is creating controversy again by first telling a reporter for Time magazine that he'd vote for the health care package as currently composed in the Senate, then days later denying he meant any such thing.

Frist helped push through the Internet casino prohibition by attaching it to an urgent homeland security issue that came up for vote at midnight on the day Congress adjourned for the year, avoiding scrutiny while assurring passage by linking it to such an important bill. Capitol Hill rumors attributed political aspirations for a Presidential run behind Frist's support of the religious right's anti-gambling agenda.

Now Frist has been caught trying to play both sides. He told Time's Karen Tumulty of the health care bill, "I would end up voting for it."

"As leader, I would take heat for it," Frist said. "That's what leadership is all about."

Frist noted one of his favorite parts of the bill is the requirement that people without insurance be required to buy it, a notable break from Republican ideals but certainly in line with insurance companies, which would love the forced business.

Frist then changed his mind when questioned by ABC News Radio, saying, "People try to put words in my mouth. I don’t support the Baucus bill as written today."

Apparently Frist was once again covering his bases for potential future political appeal, just as he tried to do with the Internet gambling bill. This time, he made sure to say what Big Insurance wanted to hear, then attacked the Democrats to undo damage done to his conservative core.

If the US ever wants a sneaky, underhanded politician with a record of legislating against due process (the Military Commissions Act), flip-flopping on both health care and stem cell research to appease both sides, breaking medical ethics (in the Terri Schiavo case), and supporting torture, Bill Frist will be ready to answer the call.

Published on October 5, 2009 by TomWeston

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