Being smart and being politically astute are not synonymous.  Neither is being an idiot and being politically inept.

Frist is very clearly a smart guy, probably very smart, given his training and education.  That being said, his political judgement in the Schiavo situation was extremely poor and did him damage.  I`m not talking about where he stands on the political spectrum, which has nothing to do with brains, in my opinion.  I`m talking about his grasp of political strategy and tactics, which has to do with animal cunning.

Bright guy.  He has the reputation as a first class surgeon, and cutters are no dopes.  They would never last if they were.

A good politician listens to his constituents, doesn't ignore them thinking he is more intelligent than they are, and he has ignored his people too many times in his arrogance as SML.
Even doctors can be dumb as a box of rocks if they let arrogance dominate their selves.

Should we question a few of these celebrities' intelligence because of their political stances? In any case, to say that Bill Frist is anything but a bright man would be downright stupid because it ignores the obvious. Bill Frist is a surgeon, by trade. And in the course of his arguably controversial career as a U.S. Senator (and a Senate Majority Leader), Frist has used his considerable skills as a physician to treat several of his peers, as well as innocent bystanders in his travels. If anything, his legislative decisions can be held to everyone's scrutiny (like any other politician). But as far as his intelligence, there are very, very few in this list who can intellectually outsmart the current Senate Majority Leader.

His dime store diagnosis of Schiavo proved to be way off. Maybe he should have examined her first.