Posted on 12/21/2002 6:43:16 AM PST by GailA
Edited on 05/07/2004 9:20:16 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
U.S. Sen. Bill Frist probably will be named Senate majority leader by Republican senators as early as Monday afternoon. The expected move follows the sudden announcement yesterday by embattled Sen. Trent Lott that he is stepping down from the leadership post.
(Excerpt) Read more at tennessean.com ...
Frist stands alone to inherit post Racial skeletons in surgeon's past
By Richard Locker locker@gomemphis.com December 21, 2002
NASHVILLE - Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist's likely election as Senate majority leader is the latest marker in a meteoric career and raises his national profile for a possible bid for president in 2008, political analysts said Friday.
It would also boost Tennessee's positioning as Congress crafts legislation distributing federal funding, officials said. But it can also reduce the time the state's senior senator has to spend in Tennessee and on state issues, they said.
Renowned as a heart transplant surgeon for most of his adult life, Frist voted for the first time at age 36, was elected to the U.S. Senate at 42 and is poised at age 50 to become one of the nation's three or four most powerful political figures.
The Senate Republican Conference vote originally set for Jan. 6 to consider replacing Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) as Senate GOP leader is now expected for Monday as the party moves to put the two-week controversy to an end.
Senators who considered running for the post decided in quick succession Friday not to, leaving Frist the only candidate Friday night.
While Frist is considered more of a political moderate than Lott, he is not without controversies of his own that touch on racial politics, from his first election in 1994 to his chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in this year's elections.
The NAACP released a statement Friday giving him an "F'' on its Congressional Report Card of votes important to the organization. Also, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) of the Congressional Black Caucus asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate "efforts to suppress the minority vote'' in this year's elections, citing "troubling incidents in key Senate races under the purview of National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Bill Frist.''
William H. Frist
Age - 50; Feb. 22, 1952. Education - B.A., Princeton University, 1974; medical degree, Harvard University, 1978.
Medical Experience - Surgical training: Massachusetts General Hospital, Southampton General Hospital in England, Stanford University Medical Center, 1978-83; chief resident, cardiothoracic surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford University, 1984-86; director of heart and lung transplantation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1986-93; founder, Vanderbilt Transplant Center; author of more than 100 articles, chapters and abstracts on medical research and three books.
Political Experience - U.S. senator from Tennessee, 1995-present; chairman, National Republican Senatorial Committee, 2001-02.
Family - Wife, Karyn; three sons, Harrison, Jonathan and Bryan.
- The Associated Press
And as a candidate challenging then-senator Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) in 1994, Frist told audiences that Sasser was sending their tax dollars to Washington "where Marion Barry lives." Barry was the controversial former mayor of Washington seeking re-election after a jail term for cocaine possession. Frist stopped using the line after Sasser accused him of racism.
Near the end of the 1994 campaign, Frist was criticized for a remark he made during an anti-crime march in a largely black neighborhood of Jackson.
In asking a supporter to get some campaign pencils to hand out during the event, Frist said: "I want the unsharp ened ones. I don't want to get stuck.''
Frist denied there was any racial component in his comments, but Sasser and some black leaders criticized the remarks as racist.
Frist could not be reached for comment Friday, but his Senate office and others downplayed the substance of those complaints and said the senator has a strong record of support for minority health and education issues.
"There's no substance to that. Senator Frist's legacy at the NRSC will be one of reaching out to all communities,'' spokesman Nick Smith said of the complaint by Conyers. Conyers's office said it had received no response from U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft.
Nashville businessman Francis Guess, a prominent black Republican, said he's never detected a hint of racism in Frist.
"His father, Dr. Thomas Frist Sr., was a man who always treated people with the dignity he thought they deserved regardless of race,'' Guess said. "In getting to know . . . Senator Frist, I have not ever concluded that any of them ever harbored a racist bone in their bodies. Growing up in the South, one develops antennae on these kinds of things and that bell has never rung with me with any of the Frists.''
Analysts in Tennessee and Washington assessed Frist's likely ascension as a dramatic boost for his own political future as well as his home state's. Although Frist has declined to talk about a possible White House race in 2008, he has been considered a possible candidate.
"Without question, it clearly elevates his national stature,'' said GOP pollster Whit Ayers, a key advisor to Sen.-elect Lamar Alexander. "It hones his ability to articulate the Republican message and gives him innumerable opportunities to perfect a television persona.''
Vanderbilt University political science professor Bruce Op penheimer, an expert on congressional politics, said Frist's elevation to the majority leader's post may benefit Tennessee even without his direct involvement in legislation, but may also have a downside.
"What it means for Tennessee is that anybody who is putting together a piece of legislation is going to be concerned about getting it scheduled on the Senate floor, which the majority leader has control over,'' Oppenheimer said. "And as you develop formulas about how federal moneys are distributed and how money is earmarked, it may be that the majority leader does not even have to ask you to protect his state's interests because you would do that anyway as a smart politician.
"The downside is, he will not be the same kind of player on the formulation of specific legislation. He's going to be busy elsewhere. And spending as much time in Tennessee as he does now, that's going to be difficult.''
Frist has been on a fast track for most of his life. His father was a prominent Nashville phy sician who, with Frist's older brother, Thomas Frist Jr., founded Hospital Corporation of America in 1968, now the nation's largest for-profit hospital company.
HCA announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle the federal government's five-year-old investigation of allegations of financial fraud, including accusations that some of its hospitals overstated expenses in seeking compensation from programs like Medicare. Under the agreement, HCA did not admit to any wrongdoing but agreed to pay nearly $900 million in fines and reimbursements.
Both HCA and Frist's office said it would be impossible to say how many shares of HCA the senator owns because most of his financial holdings are in a blind trust beyond his control. However, both said that Frist has never been employed by HCA and has never been a board member.
Bill Frist graduated from Princeton University in 1974, Harvard Medical School in 1978 and did his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was director of Vanderbilt University's heart and lung transplant program when he decided, in late 1993, to switch careers and run for the Senate.
Instead of running for the open seat vacated by Al Gore, he decided to challenge three-term incumbent Sasser, defeating five others in the Republican primary before moving on to a bitter general election showdown that ended with a 56-42 percent victory over Sasser in the 1994 Republican sweep.
He was re-elected by a landslide in 2000, defeating Democrat Jeff Clark, a business professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
Contact Nashville Bureau chief Richard Locker at (615) 255-4923.
I want someone who will treat the dems the same way they treated us when the were in charge, exactly the same level of mutual respect and bipartisan efforts on behalf of the nation. I don't know if Frist can be Leahy-like.
The ultimate test, in my view, revolves around the concept of who is best suited to stick it to someone who needs to have it stuck to him. Therefore, the best person to be Republican Majority Leader of the Senate is the one who will make Jefford's life the most miserable. This would also serve as a warning to any other traitor who might leave the Republicans for a bribe.
The best part of having Frist is that it removes the taint on the southern states that the dems threw all over them with the Lott fiasco.
Frist can't be painted with the race card. How do you call a man a racist who flys his own plane into Africa on his vacation and performs surgery on poor Africans? Oh, the dems will try, but they'll be laughed off the stage.
Also, I get the feeling that this guy is anti-Second Amendment. What is his stance on this issue? Will he allow the assault weapons/mag ban to sunset? Will he protect our 2nd Amendment rights? Lott was abysmal on this. Oh he provided all the correct soundbites to appease the good ol boys back home, but in the end, he just let the Dems roll on this issue.
I'll back Frist 100% if somebody can come up with the proper answers on these questions.
His father and his brother (both noted surgeons) founded the hospital. Frist was given shares of the family business but he never worked for, nor served on the BOD for the hospital chain. He's a noted Heart-Lung surgeon himself and spends his vacations from the senate by flying his own personal plane into Africa to perform free surgery for poor Africans. So, as to majority shareholder, I doubt it unless the rest of the family no longer exists.
As to the 2nd Amendment, the NRA doesn't seem to think he's a gun grabber. Why don't you go look at his voting record. He received a 100% rating from the ACU and a 100% rating from National Right to Life.
The man is a doctor! You can't expect him to be running around the Capitol waiving an AK-47, but I'm sure he respects the 2nd Amendment. As to the assalt weapon legislation Frist will back Bush's position what ever that turns out to be.
I just noted the words "abortion provider". I can't even believe you swallowed that piece of crap. HCA, the hospital chain his family owns is exactly that a HOSPITAL chain. Hospitals are not abortion clinics!!!!!!
The man has a 100% rating from National Right to Life. How do you suppose he'd get that if he owned an abortion clinic?
The people on FreeRepublic never used to accept gossip and rumor. This board is successful because we research things, we look up voting records, we trace down false stories. If you guys are going to join the pack of jackles that just swallow anything I suggest you become democrats. They're good at swallowing.
Gun Owners of America give Frist a "D" rating.
GOA Senate Ratings For The 107th Congress
He is also unacceptable on Right to Life issues.
Opponents of abortion on demand are likely to be deeply disappointed. While Trent Lott, R-Miss., had promised to bring to the floor for a quick, early vote a bill restricting partial-birth abortion, Frist championed the nomination by President Clinton of former Surgeon General David Satcher, a fervent supporter of unrestricted abortion and someone who actually performed abortions.
Since when is GOA the NRA, did they buy out the NRA recently?
Since when has any conservative Freeper accepted the NRA's opinion over Gun Owners of America?
Sounds to me like you're peddling Kool-Aid.
"The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington."
-Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
In comparison, the NRA can very well be described as liberal gun grabbers, "boil the frog" sytle.
The NRA compromises on 2nd Amendment legislation while we continue to gradually lose our 2nd Amendment rights.
Don't you think there are already too many regulations on the books already?
Please identify for me anything that indicates the NRA opposed the Lautenberg Act within six months of its passage.
Personally I feel that the NRA's philosophy given in their 1996 Board of Directors' resolution (vote for any Republican whose Democrat opponent is bad enough, regardless of whether the Republican is at all pro-gun) was seen as a green light for Republicans who let the Lautenberg Act sail through on a 97-2 vote in the Senate and a supermajority vote in the House.
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