Senator Bill Frist is fighting for his supporters in the conservative Family
Research Council who want to ban internet gambling while more than 5,000
phone calls poured into different US senator offices over the past week in
opposition to the proposed ban. Frist and his Christain conservative backers
appear to be on the winning hand of this battle as the senator, who is
looking to run as a presidential candidate in 2008, is attaching part of the
anti-internet gambling bill to a terrorist defense bill. No defense bill has
been turned down by the Senate in the past five years. As long as Frist gets
his wish to attach the part of the anti-internet gambling bill that will
disallow credit cards to distribute money to offshore gambling operations
the bill will most likely pass. Frist is making this last ditch effort
because he knows the anti-internet gambling bill has no chance of facing the
senate floor this year. Meanwhile, senators all over the country are being
bombarded by phone calls from the poker players alliance and other internet
gambling supporters begging them to stop the attachment Frist is proposing.

Senator Clinton’s office received more than 50 calls in one hour oppsosing
any action against internet gambling. Senator Richard Durbin, at the
Illinois office experienced a higher than normal call volume, and people
were struggling to get through. Senator John Cornyn’s office in Texas
received between 100-200 calls from people expressing their views. In
Virginia, Senator Allen received over 26 calls from opposers of the gambling
bill.

Senators are elected to support the majority, but it appears that Senator
Bill Frist is only looking out for his conservative minority.