Just spoke to a Frist aide

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

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NROG originally said in the other thread that, while Frist will continue to push during the lame duck session, he is unlikely to succeed.

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Big picture, there are basically three ways that we can "win" the lame duck session.

1. Frist just doesn't bother because of some combination of the following:

a. He's demoralized/discredited after a loss in the midterms.
b. He gets too much negative feedback from lobbying groups.
c. He identifies other pet issues that will buy him more votes with less political capital expended.
d. He didn't care that much to begin with and was really just posturing.

2. Frist tries, but is rebuffed by interests on the Senate Appropriations Committee, e.g. Harry Reid.

3. Democrats take over and hold everything up, or otherwise insist on keeping non-germane [censored] to a minimum.

A fourth way we can win, I suppose, is if favorable bill langauge is inserted, e.g. "credit cards only" or "study". If I were a lobbying interest here, I would be spending at least some fraction of my time exploring that outcome.