The Senate Showdown Over Minimum Wage Raise Vs. Estate/Death Tax

From WaPo and I'd love to see Frist left with hard-boiled egg on his face; as for Frist's reputation, does anyone remember his "diagnosis" of Terri Schiavo from a videotape?

The Senate is on a collision course this week between backers of a higher minimum wage and supporters of a sharply reduced estate tax. Leaders in both parties were busily taking temperatures and counting votes yesterday, saying the outcome is too close to call.

Most Democrats support the minimum-wage hike and oppose the estate tax cut. Most Republicans take the opposite stand. But their choices will not be easy because the House -- with Senate GOP leaders' blessings -- approved both proposals in one bill Saturday and then left town for the summer. The legislation will preoccupy the Senate during a hectic week that also will include action on offshore drilling, military spending and a rewrite of pension law.

The wage-tax showdown, likely to occur Friday, will boil down to this: Do enough Democrats sufficiently detest the estate tax cut -- which would benefit the wealthiest Americans -- to reject a chance to increase the federal minimum wage, which would benefit the working poor?

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is gambling that the answer is no, and his reputation as a legislative strategist is partly on the line.