Frist's AIDS charity paid close associates

ASSOCIATED PRESS ^ | December 18, 2005 | Jonathan M. Katz and John Solomon

[baystaterebel]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns that provide the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful's nonprofit. The returns for World of Hope Inc., obtained by the Associated Press, also show the charity raised almost all of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources. The donors gave between $97,950 and $267,735 each to help fund the Tennessee Republican's efforts to fight AIDS.

[baystaterebel]

Looks like the democrats have finally sent the flying monkeys after Frist.

[stocksthatgoup]

Interesting development. It is time to open the books on all politicians, Republicans and Democrats.

[stocksthatgoup]

Des Moines Register NOT reporting Iowa Sen. Harkin ethics investigation... e-mail the paper!!
IowaPresidentialWatch.com ^ | 12/16/2005 | IPWGOP

[AmericaUnited]

Let's see... Frist should hire complete strangers... NO. Of course you are going to hire people whom you know and trust.

[baystaterebel]

One thing that gets me about stories like this is that it is always a Republican that makes the initial headline. Then after further review it is found that most democrats do the same or worse. Yet the scandal will always have the Republicans name attached to it.

Wasn't Nancy Pelosi's son on her payroll cooking her books for her? Where is the Associated Press on that story?

I agree, open all the books. Just report the freaking facts fairly. Thats all I ask.

[OldFriend]

Clearly the dems see Frist as a threat. Little do they know he's the least likely candidate to win the Presidential primaries.

Perhaps these ludicrous attacks will give First some backbone.

[cgbg]

Presumably members of Frist's inner circle are experts on AIDS and charity--not.

Look, this is what Hillary's files have on most members of Congress.

These guys got elected and supported by special interests because somebody somewhere can blackmail them.

Live boys, dead girls, phony financial transactions, phony charities-welcome to our Nation's Capitol. :-(

[Zenith]

What is the CRIME ??

It is being REPUBLICAN !

This is nothing !

[Tax-chick]

Perhaps these ludicrous attacks will give First some backbone.

Wouldn't that be nice!

[marvlus]

This equates to about 9 cents on the dollar. My question is if the other 91 cents actually made it to the intended charities? If so, then this is actually very good. I saw on O'Reilly the other night where two men supposedly were taking in contributions for Armed Forces veterans. The amount of money actually going to the veterans was 2 cents on the dollar, which is a terrible disgrace! To make it even worse, these men were living high on the hog in luxury homes and automobiles!

[sgtbono2002]

I dont expect this will help give Frist any backbone.

[sure_fine]

"Wasn't Nancy Pelosi's son on her payroll cooking her books for her? Where is the Associated Press on that story?

I agree, open all the books. Just report the freaking facts fairly. Thats all I ask."




thanks alot, have you ever had Cheerios and milk all over your keyboard?

[Tax-chick]

Oh, well.

[BallyBill]

I saw this story floating around yesterday and the headline made me wonder if it helped or hurt Frist. I knew that it was meant to hurt him, but the headlines made Frist look like he cared deeply about AIDS. I guess the media figured that out too and came up with a nastier headline that makes it clear he just a typical evil Republican stealing money from the downtrodden.

[OldFriend]

Unless of course, he decides to make nice nice so they'll be nice nice to him.

He will never be forgiven for campaigning against Daschle. This is what it's all about, along with scuttling any plans he might have for higher office.

[libertylover]

At this glance this looks like the AP trying to create a scandal where none exists since there's not much here. The AP needs to ask if the consulting firms actually produced anything, like a document with recommendations. If so, OK; if not, big problem. Then was the amount paid out of line for what was produced? e.g., one million dollars for a 10-page document, etc. Also, what, if any, are the rules for Senators against hiring who they want?

[George W. Bush]

This is 18 people buying Frist and him passing along 10% of the grift from his AIDS charity to his cronies.

He could have raised the money just by making a few calls and opening his office door to these same 18 people.

This is about rewarding cronies and generating the incidental publicity for his 'charity', useful if he makes a WH run in '08.

[YOUGOTIT]

And who do the left-wing charitable trusts and foundations pay their enemies?

[Mister Da]

Frist is clever. Disguise a influence-peddling operation as an AIDS charity. That otta throw off the lefties - NOT!

If our founding fathers could have forseen how our republic has "progressed" to this point, the Washington family would be our royal family right now!

I am thoroughly disgusted with all things Washington D.C.

Of the politicians, BY the politicians, FOR the politicians - isn't that what Lincoln meant?

ARRRRGH!!!

[Tax-chick]

Senator Frist seems to be a nice man. Unfortunately, that's about the only positive thing to say about him, as a national figure. (He might be overwhelmingly terrific, to his friends and family. :-). We have too many Senators like that ... "nice person ... snappy dresser ... good haircut ..." but useless when it comes to advancing a conservative agenda.