A Pair of Giant Killers

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Bill Frist, 42, outspent his opponent Sasser nearly 3 to 2 -- $4.5 million to $2.8 million -- including $3.7 million of his own money from his family's chain of hospitals, Columbia/HCA. He imported an out-of-state gunslinger -- political consultant Tom Perdue who advised Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia in his upset win two years ago over Wyche Fowler. Frist went strongly negative on the "liberal, taxing, two-faced" Jim Sasser, running an ad picturing Sasser's face on Mount Rushmore alongside Ted Kennedy's and Dan Rostenkowski's and saying, "Eighteen years is long enough." Last February only 12% of Tennesseans had an unfavorable view of Sasser; by November 46% did. Frist came from 40 points behind to three in the fall after flying from one town to another across the state shaking hands. Meanwhile, Sasser was in Washington collecting commitments from his colleagues in his bid to become Senate majority leader after his presumed re-election.

By the time Sasser got serious, he couldn't adjust to the new landscape, where promising to bring a multimillion dollar federal wind-tunnel project was just what the voters had soured on. Sasser triumphed in their first debate, but Frist turned his lackluster performance into another sign that he wasn't a smoothie from the big city. Sasser then turned negative, pointing out that Dr. Frist had masqueraded as a pet lover to get cats from an animal shelter to use in lab experiments, that he had not even registered to vote until six years ago. The Senator pointed to the irony of a heart-and-lung surgeon saying it was up to parents -- not government -- to decide whether children should smoke. He also took Frist's proposal to cut $230 billion from the federal budget and showed that it couldn't be done.

But all was in vain. Doctors, even wealthy ones, rank well above politicians in public esteem. No one gave a hoot about the kittens, or where Frist would find the spending cuts, as long as he wanted to cut. Sasser lost by 212,843 votes.

< Amid the euphoria of Republican victories, Stockman was asked, "What are you going to do now?"and he joked, "Go to Disneyworld." Well, Washington is a certain kind of theme park that newcomers enter at their own risk. Old immunities disappear as members are forced to take positions and cast votes, providing the very specifics to voters and potential opponents they so carefully avoided this campaign. Unless overnight sensations like Stockman and Frist perform sensationally, they may find the broom that swept the old coots out of office ready to be used again.