The way one D.C.er put it to me: “I think context matters enormously. Romney took a position that was politically difficult to take and got him hammered in the press, in the face of enormous pressure to cave. Frist took a position that endears him to all the nice people and gets him pleasant editorials and has him called moderate and statesmanlike, and all he had to do was stab his party in the back. Seems pretty different to me.”