"I'm not going to comment on private conversations between my boss and other senators," said Frist spokeswoman Margaret Camp when asked on Tuesday about the Tennessee Republican's talks with Kennedy and Edwards. Camp then called back to dispute any report that Frist was trying to shut McCain out, noting that he called McCain on Friday afternoon. But that was a day after the Senate recessed and, of course, an excellent time of the week to leave a message with someone with whom you don't really want to speak.

Giving Edwards the cold shoulder while trying to freeze out McCain is only part of the administration's efforts, including an all-out attempt, led by Rove, to lobby members of the House and Senate to hold off on introducing the patients bill of rights. This effort ended with Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., the bill's House cosponsor last year, removing his name from the bill (and his spine from his skeleton) as a bipartisan delegation, led by McCain, went ahead and announced the legislation Feb. 6. Even then, according to sources, the White House didn't phone McCain to ask him if he and his colleagues could delay introduction of the bill.

Why the attempt to shut McCain out of the process? Since the GOP primaries last year, Rove has had a bilious vendetta against all those associated with McCain. No one should be surprised by that; vengeance didn't debut in Washington with Rove. But the ill-fated attempt to shut out the main Republican cosponsor of the bill is apparently the first time Rove's (and, presumably, Bush's) delectable combination of ego and manipulativeness has been an obstacle to a law being passed. (Rove, meanwhile, did not return calls for this article).

Egos often intrude in this business; Edwards and Kennedy have butted heads on minor issues surrounding the patients protection act. Both Democrats are being sized up skeptically by their caucus colleagues these days. Liberal Senate Democrats are scratching their heads at Kennedy's eagerness to be at the negotiating table with Bush, to be a player. Edwards, meanwhile, with his blow-dried, huckleberry manner and apparent interest in a 2004 presidential nomination, has rubbed others the wrong way.

Still, both have been able to hammer out their differences and get a bill into the hopper. Kennedy was approached last June by McCain during the last debate over a patients bill of rights. McCain, still fresh from a painful Republican primary loss to Bush, told the old-school liberal that he had heard so many complaints about HMOs and insurance companies on the campaign trail that "I'm with you from here on out." That meant something to Kennedy, who had never really worked with McCain on anything other than some government reform bills. And it meant something to Edwards that McCain's office was so willing to work on a bill with his.

Moreover, both Kennedy and Edwards know that shutting McCain out of the process, as Frist wanted, wasn't just bad manners, it was bad politics.

"McCain brings commitment and visibility," says a source close to Kennedy. Of course, he bucks up the courage of the cojones-lacking Democratic Caucus. But he also makes it tough for conservative Democrats like Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., to vote against the bill, and provides cover for other Republican senators who are eager to sign on but afraid of the repercussions from big businesses and HMOs that oppose the bill.

Bush's reaction, therefore, is instructive. He is willing to be bipartisan, willing to work with Democrats. Perhaps it's because they are not the real threat.

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