The Economist's Lexington columnist [subscription reqd.] has a lot to say about Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and not much of it is good. Here's a key section:

Mr Frist's problem is not just with his politics (which are clearly malleable). It is with his personality (which is less so). In his move rightwards, the good doctor has tried to ape the younger George Bush; too often, however, he has seemed more like Al Gore. Like that other patrician Tennessean, Mr Frist feels a constant need to prove himself. “With the family emphasis on self-worth,” he once wrote, “I longed to be first in everything, to be king of the hill, the grammar school capo di capo.” Like Mr Gore, he is a robotic speaker; and like Mr Gore, he has discovered radical ideology rather late in life, giving the distinct sense that he is trying to prove too much.

Mr Frist is clearly an extraordinarily talented man. If he could rein in his ambition, he might yet become a great leader of the Senate. But his longing to be “king of the hill” and “first in everything” could be his undoing. It is not only forcing him through an embarrassing ideological makeover. It is also conjuring up a high-stakes political battle that may end up harming himself and the Republican Party, and the country too.

Traditional conservatives -- like those who read The Economist -- are getting increasingly fed up with Frist's tendency to side with the religious right over the economic right. If anything will split the GOP coalition, it will be an overreach by Christian zealots that will force economic conservatives (who tend to be social moderates) to either stay at home on election day or defect to the libertarians. Frist is nearing that precipice rapidly. Let's hope he takes that step over the edge.