No rest for the weary

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spoke to a few bloggers today, mostly about next week’s elections. Frist has been campaigning almost non-stop for Republican Senate candidates, especially in the crucial states of Missouri and Tennessee. He sounded very confident about his home state, stating that Corker pulled ahead about a week ago (though Frist discounts polls showing Corker up by seven or eight percentage points) and isn’t likely to falter. The breakthrough occurred, Frist said, because voters began to see the race as Tennessee values versus Washington values. The Majority Leader was also optimistic about Missouri, but said that right now the race is dead even, not just statistically even. Everything I’ve heard confirms that assessment.
On a more general level, Frsit is heartened by the fact that when he speaks with small groups of voters (as he regularly does on the campaign trail), the economy comes up, and in a positive way, more often and earlier in the discussion than was the case a month ago. This is good news, indeed.
After the election, Frist intends to run an aggressive “lame duck” session, focusing in particular on pushing for the confirmation of John Bolton. When that’s all over, he’ll return to Nashville, having fulfilled his 1994 promise to limit himself to two terms, and decide whether to pursue the presidency. Frist told us he would make that decision in January.
Frist referred several times to his blog and seemed to take particular pride in a several of his posts which chide the Democrats. We know the feeling.
UPDATE: The Majority Leader has put up a podcast of the conference call.