Just spoke to a Frist aide

[JuntMonkey]

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If after all the ups and downs in the pace of my heartbeat with good news and bad news, if anything goes wrong now I'll need a "Frist aide kit". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I actually find that to be quite humorous, and your mad face enhances it.

[Ron Burgundy]

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If after all the ups and downs in the pace of my heartbeat with good news and bad news, if anything goes wrong now I'll need a "Frist aide kit". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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[img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

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I actually find that to be quite humorous, and your mad face enhances it.

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I thought it was pretty meh, until I saw the mad face, then I LOLed.

[Austiger]

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If after all the ups and downs in the pace of my heartbeat with good news and bad news, if anything goes wrong now I'll need a "Frist aide kit". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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[img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

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I actually find that to be quite humorous, and your mad face enhances it.

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I thought it was pretty meh, until I saw the mad face, then I LOLed.

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Is there anything better on the interweb, pixel for pixel, than a twoplustwo emoticon? [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[AndyH69]

Internet Gambling Legislation Dead For Now
written September 25, 2006

The National Right for Online Gaming (NROG) confirmed early today that Senator Bill Frist’s attempt to push through an online gambling ban before Congress breaks for elections has failed and no more action will be taken in the coming days. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source close to the Senator told NROG that “the efforts, including an attempt to attach to the DoD bill, have failed and he (Frist) will not be moving forward with gambling legislation before elections.” Congress will return for a “lame duck” session in mid-November where this issue may take center stage again. “The Senator has made Internet Gambling a priority before he exits the Senate and I will confirm that he is actively searching for a way to succeed.”

http://www.eog.com/news/industry.aspx?id=8460

[Zele]

Unfortunately, this is not news, as EOG's source (NROG) said this in this forum earlier today. Somewhat encouraging, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[jrz1972]

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Congress will return for a “lame duck” session in mid-November where this issue may take center stage again. “The Senator has made Internet Gambling a priority before he exits the Senate and I will confirm that he is actively searching for a way to succeed.”

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I sincerely don't mean to be a killjoy, but this is really bad news. Like I mentioned in another thread, I fear Frist will have a vastly easier time getting this attached to some other piece of legislation than he did with the DoD bill. We got lucky on this one in that some of the more powerful members in the conference were staunchly opposed to unrelated riders, but it's going to be tougher sledding when a lame duck session considers something more pork-filled with all sort of other miscellaneous stuff attached.

[SamG]

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Unfortunately, this is not news, as EOG's source (NROG) said this in this forum earlier today. Somewhat encouraging, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

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Actually, I'm not sure I find it encouraging.

“The Senator has made Internet Gambling a priority before he exits the Senate and I will confirm that he is actively searching for a way to succeed.”

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I don't understand why Frist is pushing so hard on this issue. I know there has been some speculation about a presidential run and how this could be touted as a moral victory, but wouldn't Frist want to use his final days in congress pushing for more meaningful legislation? Why internet gambling? Has gambling become a pet issue for him? Does he owe someone a favor?

[Silent1]

Do you mean "this is bad news; I would prefer they attach it to the DoD bill and pass it now." ?

What exactly were you expecting in terms of good news?

It seems to me that living to fight another day is the best one can hope for, given our constraints. That can't be bad news.

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[Nate tha\\\' Great]

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Congress will return for a “lame duck” session in mid-November where this issue may take center stage again. “The Senator has made Internet Gambling a priority before he exits the Senate and I will confirm that he is actively searching for a way to succeed.”

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I sincerely don't mean to be a killjoy, but this is really bad news. Like I mentioned in another thread, I fear Frist will have a vastly easier time getting this attached to some other piece of legislation than he did with the DoD bill. We got lucky on this one in that some of the more powerful members in the conference were staunchly opposed to unrelated riders, but it's going to be tougher sledding when a lame duck session considers something more pork-filled with all sort of other miscellaneous stuff attached.

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Well, we will see. One thing that Tim Curran (editor of Roll Call) speculated about when I saw him on C-SPAN today is that if the Democrats take over in one or both chambers, they could simply fillibuster everything, pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through January, and take everything up again in the next Congress. Absent that, I think it goes without saying that the work of lobbyists is going to be very important in the next 6-8 weeks. There are certainly a lot of political favors handed out in lame duck sessions and omnibus spending bills, but sometimes these favors are to corporoate interests rather than constituents. I suspect that if the gaming and banking lobbies (no offense to grass-roots groups like NROG, but I'm thinking AGA/ABA here) really want to stop this then they have a good chance of doing so.

[JuntMonkey]

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