Sen. Bill Frist
Posted on 12/19/2002 9:01:50 PM PST by Salvation
Meet Bill Frist –
heir to Lott throne
Senator championed confirmation
of pro-abortion Satcher, fights fat
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:
Lott's daughter hits back at segregationist
Uh oh..
I don't think I like this Frist.
Can't we do better than a gun grabbing child killer advocate for SML? Pretty shallow barrel we are fishing candidates out of, imo..
HE VOTED: STRONGLY OPPOSE
Strongly Oppose means you believe: Abortion is immoral because it kills a human being, and should never be tolerated. `Roe v. Wade' should be overturned and we should protest abortion clinics as other forms of injustice are protested.
So what? Trent Lott and Tom Daschle believed in sending Archer Daniels Midland and other "farmers" $200 billion to grow corn we don't need for Ethanol which does nothing to help the environment, and costs more to produce than the final product is worth.
What is not mentioned is how Bill Frist is enemy #1 of the Trial Lawyers Association, and will be strong proponent of Tort Reform. It will pass. And media consultants like myself and others will make the trial lawyers look like the Nazis that they are.
I'm not a single-issue "pro-life" nut.
David Satcher was being promoted for Surgeon General, a job which put him in a position to advocate, abortion among the issues he could talk about.
He performed abortions, as a surgeon.
Tell me. Should an abortionist be put in a position in which he could advocate the desireability of abortion, which Satcher did?
Hey, I like Frist. But I'm just kind of curious at how those who were willing to destroy Trent Lott over remarks made in tribute to an old man on his 100th birthday are perfectly willing to look the other way when Frist's record and his ACU record are examined.
Nobody's perfect. But, as I've maintained all along, this whole Lott thing is much more about politics than about principle.
Strongly Oppose means you believe: Abortion is immoral because it kills a human being, and should never be tolerated. `Roe v. Wade' should be overturned and we should protest abortion clinics as other forms of injustice are protested.
Apparently, no it doesn't.
In the Memphis Commercial Appeal on October 28, 1994, Frist said he opposed a constitutional ban on abortion.
On the APN Hotline from June 24, 1994, Frist was noted to have "frequently" said in public that he "does not believe abortion should be outlawed."
During a 5/94 appearance on a Nashville radio station, he said he "would like to keep our Senators out of the [abotrtion] decision making process....it's a very private decision."
Frist Abortion Votes 1995 to 2000 Don't guess look and see....
Frist Announces Support For Stem-Cell Research
Proposes Strict New Standards for Ethical Research
Sunday, July 15, 2001
Press Release Of Senator Bill Frist, M.D.
print friendly version
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) made the following statement today after he announced his intention to support federal funding, with strict conditions, for stem cell research: “In my work as a heart and lung transplant surgeon, I have for years wrestled with decisions involving life, death, health and healing. Having taken part in hundreds of organ and tissue transplants, I’ve experienced the ethical challenges involved in end-of-life care on numerous occasions. I’ve seen families faced with the most difficult decision of saying farewell to a loved one. Yet I have also seen their selfless acts in the midst of this sadness to consent to donate living organs and tissues of their loved ones to the benefit of others. Like organ donation, stem cell research forces us to make difficult decisions. While holding great potential to save lives, it also raises difficult moral and ethical considerations.
“I am pro-life. My voting record in the Senate has consistently reflected my pro life philosophy. As a physician my sole purpose has been to preserve and improve the quality of life. The issue of whether or not to use stem cells for medical research involves deeply held moral, religious and ethical beliefs as well as scientific and medical considerations. After grappling with the issue scientifically, ethically and morally, I conclude that both embryonic and adult stem cell research should be federally funded within a carefully regulated, fully transparent framework. This framework must ensure the highest level of respect for the moral significance of the human embryo. Because of the unique interaction between this potentially powerful new research and the moral considerations of life, we must ensure a strong, comprehensive, publicly accountable oversight structure that is responsive on an ongoing basis to moral, ethical and scientific considerations.
“Embryonic stem cell research is a promising and important line of inquiry. I’m fully aware and supportive of the advances being made each day using adult stem cells. It is clear, however, that research using the more versatile embryonic stem cells has greater potential than research limited to adult stem cells and can, under the proper conditions, be conducted ethically. The prudent course for us as policymakers is to provide for the pursuit of both lines of research – allowing researchers in each field to build on the progress of the other.
“To achieve this, we must significantly strengthen the National Institutes of Health’s guidelines so that they include appropriate safeguards. Federal funding for stem cell research should be contingent on the implementation of a comprehensive, strict new set of safeguards and public accountability governing this new, evolving research. This process will ensure the progress of this science in a manner respectful of the moral significance of human embryos and the potential of stem cell research to improve health.”
What? You mean those guy's who tossed Lott to the wolves on a false racism charge and put our agenda in peril are at it again?
That "circular firing squad"
I share your disgust..
**
He only voted "Yes" on three issues.
What about all the anti-abortion legislation that has gone through the houses since Bush was elected?
It wasn't a false charge. Trent Lott IS a racist - he supports affirmative action.
Personally, I don't know Sen. Frist from Adam. But I checked his rating after I saw that Joe Farah was sharpening his axe . . . .
I'm laughing my ass off!
David Satcher, who performed abortions is qualified to be the chief medical spokesman for the United States of America?
Is abortion a medical procedure?
Listen, jerkweed. If anybody's hypocritical, it's you. If you're pro-life, you should be condemning Satcher's appointment, championed by Frist.
Frist will likely be a good Majority Leader. But let's not put a halo around his head.
He's as compromised as Lott is, though not in the same areas.
Abortion Issues
Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning abortion. [ ] a) Abortions should always be illegal. [ ] b) Abortions should be illegal when the fetus is viable, with or without life support. [ ] c) Abortions should always be legally available. [ ] d) Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy. [X] e) Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape. [X] f) Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered. [X] g) Abortions should be limited by waiting periods and notification requirements as decided by each state government. [X] h) Prohibit the dilation and extraction procedure, also known as "partial birth" abortion. [X] i) Prohibit public funding of abortions and public funding of organizations that advocate or perform abortions. [ ] j) Support "buffer-zones" by requiring demonstrators to stay at least five feet from abortion clinic doorways and driveways. [ ] k) Provide funding for family planning programs as a means to decrease the number of abortions. [ ] l) Other
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