Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is no stranger to putting ideology over science. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos in December, Frist refused to say whether he believed that HIV/AIDS could be transmitted through sweat and tears (despite no scientific indication that it can be). Today, as The Washington Post's Charles Babington reports, Frist has once again put conservatism ahead of medicine.

Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

His comments raised eyebrows in medical and political circles alike. It is not every day that a high-profile physician relies on family videotapes to challenge the diagnosis of doctors who examined a severely brain-damaged patient in person. Democrats were quick to note that Frist was getting rave reviews from conservative activists who will play a major role in the 2008 presidential primaries he is weighing.

Frist should know better than to try and make a snap diagnosis from a video cassette. Laurie Zoloth, director of bioethics for the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University, called his action "extremely unusual -- and by a non-neurologist."

Looking at the larger picture, this article raises serious questions as to whether Frist is fit to serve as a Senator, let alone Senate Majority Leader. Should a man who would be willing to try and advance his Presidential chances at the detriment not only to good policy but also good science be allowed on the Senate floor? And if the Republicans believe he should be their leader, doesn't that say something about their party as a whole?