The Chicago Tribune ran a very obnoxious story about Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) last Sunday. “Bill Frist makes no apologies for taking a private-sector approach to America’s substantial health-care problems,” the subhead reads. Here are the first few grafs:

At almost every turn, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist reminds people that he’s a skilled and trusted doctor, not just a politician.

As he walked to the Senate chamber to be sworn in as leader last month, the Tennessee Republican compared the exhilaration of the moment to his first heart transplant. In 2001, when anthrax threatened the Capitol complex, Frist published a handy guide: “What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism From the Senate’s Only Doctor.” On the door to his new suite of offices, the sign reads, “William H. Frist, MD.”

Now he is charged with nursing President Bush’s legislative agenda through the Senate. But a look at Frist’s history suggests that his approach to numerous complicated health-care matters is shaped more by being a conservative Republican — with a strong affinity for business and a family that founded a for-profit hospital chain — than by being a physician.

Apparently, conservatism (which in this case means a preference for markets over government control) is incompatible with being a physician. Because, of course, no doctor, Zuckman seems to suggest, who wasn’t blinded by free-market dogma would possibly prefer market solutions to health-care issues.

Frist “does not deny his strong preference for business-oriented solutions,” Zuckman writes. Why should he? Is there something to be ashamed of? Zuckman implies it, but never comes out and says it.

She then quotes a professor of Frist’s who says, “Culturally, he’s a physician and he would like every patient who suffers to get state-of-the-art medical care without having their family go bankrupt, but to be a player in Washington, you cannot offend the White House, and obviously he probably will temper his own preferences with a view of whether it causes trouble for the White House, because I think he’s a team player.”

Huh? So he’s not really a free-marketeer? He’s just going along to get along? And again, there’s this suggestion that, gee, if Congress just put its mind to it, every patient could have state-of-the-art care with no problem. As if socialized medicine didn’t lead to worse care and fewer innovations and longer waits.