Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist acknowledges that Republicans face a tougher electoral landscape than they expected just a few months ago. But if Republican candidates want to succeed on Election Day, Frist said, they should turn their focus away from the topic dominating the political debate: the Iraq war.

"The challenge is to get Americans to focus on pocketbook issues, and not on the Iraq and terror issue," Frist said in an interview yesterday.

Frist suggested Republican candidates remind voters of things like tax cuts and lower gas prices - a result, he said, of the energy bill passed by Congress last year - instead of dwelling on reports of violence in Iraq.

"These are all things the media has not covered," Frist said. "People don't say, 'This Congress passed tax cuts.' But that means something to every American."

Frist, a possible candidate for the presidency, was in Concord yesterday for two reasons: to help local Republicans in the run-up to Election Day, and to accompany his wife, Karyn, on a promotional tour for her new book.

Though he will retire from the Senate when his term expires at the end of this year, Frist was eager to talk campaign strategy. He said he has been traveling nonstop in recent weeks, campaigning for candidates in his native Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa and New Hampshire. He said those trips have shown him a "worried, discontented and confused" electorate, with voters fed up with the politics of Washington, D.C.

But despite polls that show most voters expressing dissatisfaction with GOP leadership in Congress, Frist said both parties are equally to blame for a partisan environment and voter frustration.

He suggested two issues that Republicans should use to highlight their differences with Democrats: homeland security and taxes. Specifically, he criticized Democratic opposition to renewing the Patriot Act as "not equipping the government and military with the best tools to defeat terrorists." And he said proposals by Democrats to repeal tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would be a drain on all taxpayers.

Frist summed up Democrats' strategy on Iraq as "waving the white flag and surrendering." And he said the continued violence in Iraq underscored the Republican Party's "clarity of defeating the terrorists."

"When you have an increase in violence, it shows how big and deadly this enemy is," Frist said.

Frist, who's retiring from two six-year terms in the Senate, said he's considering a run for president but won't make up his mind until after the Nov. 7 elections.

"Once we get back to Nashville, we'll decide," he said. "We'll have to decide pretty quick."

If Frist does choose to run, it won't be easy. His term as Senate majority leader has been beset by numerous difficulties, including recent clashes within his party over rules for interrogating terror suspects and immigration reform. And he's made less of an impression in New Hampshire than other potential Republican candidates. Several Republicans - including Sen. John McCain, Gov. Mitt Romney and Gov. George Pataki - have already hired staff in the state or secured the support of prominent activists.

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said Frist's future ambitions could be hobbled by his current job.

"The worst possible post from which to run for president is majority leader of the Senate," Sabato said. "Unless you have 60 reliable votes, you can't be a leader. You have the title but not the authority."

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