U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist pulled a "Taliban" of his own Friday night by sneaking unrelated internet gambling provisions into a port security bill while removing key measures that would secure the nation's mass transit system.

A number of Democrats were outraged and vehemently opposed the addition of the internet gambling measure but voted on the bill unanimously in order to ensure port security.

Democrats had accused Republicans of pushing the bill to placate its conservative base, particularly the religious right, before the November 7 congressional elections.

Frist spoke like a Taliban when he addressed online poker as  "a serious addiction that undermines the family, dashes dreams, and frays the fabric of society".

While Frist was pursuing the scourge of online poker and its adverse affect on families, a colleague, Mark Foley, resigned after learning his sexually charged internet exchanges with a young male congressional page were about to go public.  Foley today blamed his behavior on alcoholism.  And here we were thinking his perversions may have been brought on by internet poker.

Frist' next bill: Women must cover up their faces?

Now for those of you who thought that Bill Frist acted in a sorta "Taliban-like" fashion this past Friday night.....put your seat belts on!

Bill Frist is calling for the Taliban to come back into power in Afghanistan. 

The Associated Press reported Monday that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" and their allies into the government.

The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

Afghanistan is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

According to an Associated Press count, based on reports from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials, at least 2,800 people have been killed nationwide so far this year. The count, which includes militants and civilians, is about 1,300 more than the toll for all of 2005.

Maybe Frist should stick to sticking provisions such as restrictions on internet gambling to bills where they do not belong instead of sticking his foot in his mouth.  Next thing you know we'll have Talibans in the Senate.

David Goldstein of the Huffington Post explains the State of the Republicans under Bill Frist:

"Not since the 1919 Black Sox have we seen a more determined effort to throw a game than that of the current Republican leadership. The Keystone Cops routine performed by Hastert, Reynolds and Shimkus seems designed to exacerbate and extend the Foley scandal as much and as long as possible, while the stupidly self-destructive deflections of White House Press Secretary Tony "Naughty Emails" Snow and GOP surrogate blowhard Matt Drudge (blaming Foley's downfall on "these 16 and 17 year-old beasts") couldn't have been more outrageously scripted by the satirical mind of Jesus' General.

"If the GOP wants to ensure a Democratic sweep in November, this is exactly how to do it.

"Yet apparently, political ambition knows no bounds, for even in the midst of this unrelenting firestorm, the title of Republican Idiot King continues to draw stiff competition, most notably today from outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a man who has made a hobby of repeatedly dashing his presidential hopes on the rocks of his own political mediocrity.

"The point is that the GOP's number one man in the Senate could possibly be so stunningly, politically tone deaf."

---

Christopher Costigan, www.gambling911.com

Originally published October 2, 2006 11:25 pm ET