Meet Bill Frist: Senator championed confirmation of pro-abortion Satcher

WorldNetDaily ^ | 12-19-02 | Joseph Farrah

[Salvation]

Meet Bill Frist –
heir to Lott throne
Senator championed confirmation
of pro-abortion Satcher, fights fat

---

Posted: December 19, 2002
9:30 p.m. Eastern

By Joseph Farah
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – Everyone knows Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is the upper house's only physician. But who is this man who appears likely to become the next Senate majority leader?

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.

Satcher continued to serve in the Bush administration until earlier this year.

While Satcher's nomination was widely presumed to have originated with Vice President Al Gore, like Satcher, a Tennessean, his confirmation was actually championed by Frist.

Frist once told National Public Radio that there are no absolute right, absolute wrong answers in medicine. During last year's stem-cell debate, Frist proposed using leftover embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics for scientific research. The Weekly Standard also noted that Frist believes there is a moral imperative to use one unsalvageable life to save another.

Frist's other pet causes while serving in the Senate have been fighting AIDS in Africa and fighting obesity among Americans. He believes the federal government needs to increase funding of physical education programs in school. He thinks spending $125 million on a Centers for Disease Control program encouraging children to engage in athletics is another top priority.

He sponsored a bill earlier this year that would have authorized a nationwide ad campaign to promote better nutrition and exercise and would have authorized money for bicycle paths, parks and recreation centers.

According to sources close to the White House, Frist has been favored by Bush political adviser Karl Rove to take the helm of the Senate Republicans ever since Lott got himself embroiled in controversy with his remarks at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.

Now Frist reportedly is considering a bid to oust Lott.

According to the Associated Press, GOP aides say Frist, now in his second term, is gauging support from his colleagues, having spent time sounding them out by telephone.

Sen. Bill Frist

One aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Frist would consider running for the job if colleagues asked him to do so "for the sake of the Senate as an institution or the long-term agenda of the Republican Party.''

In a sign that Frist might be building momentum, a Republican aide close to No. 2 Senate Republican Don Nickles of Oklahoma said Nickles would likely support a race by Frist.

Nickles, a longtime rival of Lott, believes he would have less support from colleagues than Frist for majority leader, the aide said.

Meanwhile, Lott sustained a double-barreled setback this week as Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., broke ranks to call for a change in party leadership and Secretary of State Colin Powell forcefully criticized his controversial remarks on race.

"I believe it's time to make a change," Chafee told reporters in his home state. "I think the process is happening," he said, encouraging the White House to step in to help ease Lott from power.

Powell, the highest-ranking African American in the Bush administration, made his first comments on a controversy that flared this month when Lott spoke favorably of Sen. Strom Thurmond's segregationist presidential campaign of a half-century ago.

"If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either," Lott said at Thurmond's 100th birthday.

"I was disappointed in the senator's statement," Powell said. "I deplored the sentiments behind the statement."

"There was nothing about the 1948 election or the Dixiecrat agenda that should have been acceptable in any way to any American at that time or any American now."

Lott has maintained a defiant pose, insisting he would fight for his job at a Jan. 6 meeting of GOP rank and file senators and swiping at suggestions from anonymous officials with ties to the White House that he step down.

"There seems to be some things that are seeping out that have not been helpful," he said in Biloxi, Miss. "I understand how that happens because you've got a lot of people who work there that have different points of view," he told reporters.

"But I believe they do support what I am trying to do here and the president will continue to do so."

As WorldNetDaily reported earlier, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Lott should be replaced as Republican leader, according to the results of a new survey.

Sixty-two percent say GOP senators should replace Lott when they meet Jan. 6, compared to just 18 percent who think he should remain the party's senate chief.

First winning entry to the Senate in 1994, Frist was re-elected in 2000 by the largest margin ever received by a candidate for statewide election in Tennessee history. He's the first practicing physician elected to the chamber since 1928.

A native of Nashville, Frist founded and subsequently directed the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, which became an internationally renowned center of multi-organ transplantation. He's performed some 200 heart and lung transplants and has written more than 100 articles, chapters and abstracts on medical research, as well as three books.

Related stories:

Poll: Most want Lott replaced

Lott's daughter hits back at segregationist

[ApesForEvolution]

"One issue Rangers !"

WRONGO!

Several issues, smartly prioritized, through which, without getting the most important one right, none others - that effect everyone's life and liberty - can be solid!

IOW, if one can't get the bedrock issue right, I don't trust the rest of one's agenda.

[ApesForEvolution]

Good post bump.

[GOPyouth]

Trent Lott IS a racist

I think it's kind of shallow to call him that.

[ApesForEvolution]

"Whether it is legal or not does not make it moral"

Legal=Lethal

Legal does NOT equal lawful. Statutes are put in place to make unlawful things legal.

[ApesForEvolution]

"I disagree. Lott has talked of PBA before(he delivered one to Satan remember?) and you can be sure DeLay will deliver a bill down the hall to whomever is there."

I respect that, but remember...everyone signed on because xxxlinton (the demonically possessed one that you referred to) promised a veto. That was passed under the cover of death on arrival.

[wardaddy]

I hope we get the chance to see anyone muster the bill. I've been waiting 2 years....9-11 notwithstanding.

[ambrose]

Frist stands with MAINSTREAM America on the abortion issue. Reasonable restrictions, don't force the taxpayer to fund the procedure. But taking our marching orders from the fetus waving/abortion bombing crowd will only lead the party to ruin.

[ApesForEvolution]

"I hope we get the chance to see anyone muster the bill."

The House will send it over, Frist will get it done and Bush will sign it. Have faith! LOL!

[KQQL]

YEA RIGHT........ You rather have a MORON LOTTY FOR ML>

[TLBSHOW]

Conservatives not satisfied with Bush's record


Eager to set a bipartisan tone in Congress and avoid legislative gridlock, Mr. Bush signed an education bill that was stripped of many of its conservative reforms, such as private-school vouchers. He has also signed other pieces of legislation criticized by conservatives, such as campaign-finance reform, massive federal farm subsidies and higher tariffs on steel.
The president also has supported other issues opposed by many conservatives, such as the federalization of airport security, proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants from Mexico and a boost in funding for the Clinton-era AmeriCorps program.
"I wouldn't say that's all Bush's fault, but something more needs to be done to make sure we don't lose the conservative base," Mr. Barr said.
"When he came to New Hampshire with Ted Kennedy and stood here talking about expanding the federal role in education, he didn't exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling," said New Hampshire Republican state Rep. Fran Wendelboe. "Actually, it made me feel a little queasy."


so i guess your not a conservative right?

[KQQL]

Don't know some here want to send women to JAIL if they had abortions........in case of RAPE or InCest......

[KQQL]

fetus waving/abortion bombing crowd will only lead the party to ruin.

What's new.....???

[grania]

I don't give a damn how he votes. If he promotes an abortionist, he's got a problem.

I'm wondering if the Administration just doesn't want the PBA ban to come up, but doesn't want to offend pro-lifers so much that it affects their vote for GWB in two years. This mess is already going to put off the conservative agenda.

If Lott goes, there go the promises. Blame free. So what if Senator Lott isn't a racist and his statements were taken out of context. The end justifies the means and all of that.

If this works, who's next?

[Catholicguy]

<> What if it were the case the real reason for Lott being politically emasculated was that he was going to put Warren Rudman in charge of the 911 investigation and that was taboo for Mr. BushRove?<>

[rightwing2]

Thank you for posting this. Pro-life Christian conservatives need to unite and move very quickly to oppose Bill Frist for Senate Majority Leader because of his newly revealed pro-choice stand on abortion!

Call your Senators today and urge them to support pro-life Senator Trent Lott for Senate Majority Leader! If Frist takes over the Senate leadership job, the pro-life cause will take a serious setback.

[sinkspur]

Your criticism of Senator Frist for championing a killer of the unborn seems a little out of place considering the way you attacked people who questioned Governor Bush's pro-life committment after he honored a killer of the unborn.

Needless to say, my eyes have shed some scales over the past week.

I don't remember all of the circumstances surrounding the naming of this road, but Bush should have been more circumspect.

Bush and Frist are both pro-life, but they're also opportunists.

I'm beginning to think that everybody in politics is an opportunist.

[Catholicguy]

I'm beginning to think that everybody in politics is an opportunist.

<> Confession ought to be private :)<>

[sitetest]

Dear sinkspur,

"Bush and Frist are both pro-life, but they're also opportunists.

"I'm beginning to think that everybody in politics is an opportunist."

LOL.

No, not everyone in politics is an opportunist. Only the ones that get elected.

So there you have it, my friend. If you wish to advance your cause (and mine), it will be through opportunists. You and I would never get elected US Senator in ten thousand years, because we are true believers.

The abortion legal regime that I would prefer would be an absolute ban. I'm pretty sure that would be your call, as well. If we were honest about this during a campaign (and I think both of us would be), we might 40% of the vote. Maybe 30% in my state (Maryland).

Nearly 70% of folks will endorse a ban on abortion with the Great Exceptions: life of mother; rape; incest; severe genetic deformity.

But take away those four exceptions (which account for less than 4% of abortions), and the percentage of folks who will accept a total ban falls to around 20%. Ouch.

So, Mr. Frist is an oppportunist. You're just figuring this out? Can I interest you in some Florida swampland...

Do you think that Mr. Lott is NOT an opportunist? The swampland comes with its very own bridge...

As to the current matter. I wasn't very happy with Mr. Lott's asinine comments at Mr. Thurmond's 100th. I was even less pleased with how he handled it in the aftermath.

But I wasn't surprised either at the comments nor at his handling of the fall-out. I'm not sure that it's fair to say that Mr. Lott is a bigot. I am sure that it's fair to say that Mr. Lott doesn't really understand why what he said was offensive.

And I know it's fair to say that Mr. Lott often doesn't understand a lot of things. Perhaps, somewhere down deep underneath all the layers of opportunist politician, there is a moral core to Trent Lott. I've just never seen evidence of it.

All of which I could forgive if Mr. Lott were an effective Majority Leader, or Minority Leader. I know that these guys are all flawed and damaged goods. So, my support goes to the guys who at least can move our agenda forward. Mr. Lott hasn't done a good job of that at all.

In one way, he resembles a Democrat more than a Republican. He believes that the job of the legislature is to legislate. The Senate isn't doing its job, in his view, if laws aren't being passed. It doesn't matter whether the laws are especially conservative or not, just as long as SOMETHING is being done. So, he is a compromiser.

I don't have a problem with compromise. I'll take half a loaf over nothing most days. But there is a difference between someone who compromises on an issue, but who does so with an end goal in mind (so, we'll take a ban on PBA for now - but we know the end goal, right? An end to legal abortion on demand), and someone who compromises on an issue, because addressing the issue one way or another is the end goal (so, we can get a ban on PBA, if we just provide a teensy-weensy little "health" exception - that IS the end goal, right? Addressing PBA one way or other??).

Mr. Frist impresses me as someone who is somewhat more dedicated to actual conservative end goals (though he isn't as conservative as I would like). He doesn't impress me as a Senator who is interested in passing bills for the sake of passing bills. I may be wrong. But I doubt he'll be worse than Mr. Lott.

In any event, Mr. Lott has got to go. He is no better than Mr. Byrd, and frankly, I would prefer to allow the Dammocrap party an open field in hiring out-and-out racists and fellow-travelers to fill their various satrapies and tetrarchies.


sitetest

[RAT Patrol]

I'm beginning to think that everybody in politics is an opportunist. Me too, Sink.

[John Valentine]

The question is not what I like, the question is what YOU like. Let's not get this all turned around- YOU are the one with the agenda.

If you say that Bill Clinton is preferable - or even indistinguishable from - say, Bill Frist, based on their positions on this ONE issue, then I am going to tell you that this is EXACTLY what I don't like about pro-lifers.

Pro-lifers persistently make the perfect the enemy of the good, much to the distress of all the rest of us. We have many other issues we care passionately about: smaller less intrusive government, lower taxes, an end to the Nanny State, killing off affitmative action, ending the stranglehold of the NEA on our schools, and on and on. Pro-lifers' refusal to support electable candidates cost us dearly.

I don't like being held hostage to a single agenda. I don't mind accomodating the views of the minority, and pro-lifers ARE a minority in my neck of the woods, but I don't like the idea of sacrificing otherwise good congresscritters who vote consistently the way I like on a wide range of issues just because they don't pass the pro-life litmus test.

I am taking a lot of flack on this thread, so what? I have spent my life in the political kitchen, and I kind of like the heat.