Senator Bill Frist’s reversal on federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research strikes me as a big political mistake. He might figure he’s not running against George Bush in 2008 and so only has to be as pro-life as his expected competition, but he has a liability most of them don’t. Unlike George Allen or Mitt Romney who have been governors there is no executive record to reveal Frist’s positions. As majority leader he hasn’t shaped his own legislative profile, like John McCain, Chuck Hagel, Rick Santorum, or Sam Brownback have. He has adopted President Bush’s agenda as his own on initiatives disfavored by conservatives, like the prescription-drug benefit, highway spending, the energy bill, and immigration, while parting ways on a fundamental pro-life issue that prompts Harry Reid to call him “courageous.” The suspicion about Senator Frist among conservatives is that he has no fixed political views – he has just confirmed that this is the case. The rap is that he ineffective and his support for federal taxpayer funding will be ineffective – the President has pledged to veto it and his veto will stick even without Senator Frist.