I feel sorry for Bill Frist, a little.

As a physician, he must have developed a bit of a scientific mindset — enough to respect the facts some of the time, at least, when backed into a corner by them. Embarrassed by the Terri Schiavo autopsy report showing his video diagnosis from the Senate floor had been wrong, Frist appeared on the Today Show and denied he had ever made such a diagnosis.

As a politician, Florida Governor Jeb Bush is not bound by the scientist’s respect for evidence and logic. When the Schiavo autopsy showed no evidence of trauma or abuse, he leapt into action and put a prosecutor on the case.

Jeb is the eternal optimist. Despite polls showing public revulsion over the way politicians have attempted to feed on the misery of Terri Schiavo’s family, he’s sure there’s a political bonanza in there somewhere.

In March, while a memo circulated among Republican senators calling the Terri Schiavo case “a great political issue,” Dr. Bill Frist, a cardiologist and the Senate Republican Leader, stood up “more as a physician than as a United States Senator,” to voice his opinion on the issue. He had spent an hour watching a videotape of Schiavo, he said. Despite the contrary opinions of doctors who had actually examined and treated the patient over fifteen years, he concluded that Terri Schiavo was not in a persistant vegetative state.

In a blog entry at the time, I wrote:

Either Frist is one hell of a doctor, or he’s a very poor excuse for a man.

Well, now we know.