Skeletons Rattling In Frist's Closet?

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Dec 21, '02 | staff

[Vineyard]

Let us also remember that the real conflict of interest is the Democrats have the biggest conflict of interest.

Any plan that meets the desires of the Democraps will be a gigantic Socialist Program that is a give-awy to future Democrat voters. None of these voters would vote in the future for a Republican who might trim back this wonderful transfer of wealth from workers/taxpayers, to the large percentage of people who don't pay taxes.

Pure and simple vote buying .... buying Paul's vote by promising to transfer money to be extracted from Peter. It was Henry Hazlett who described an election as an advance auction on the sale of stolen goods. How true!

Mike

[justshe]

Well, 'you-know-who' just had his article (that he wrote...and posted on FR without telling us he wrote it...) published by WND. At least he pinged me to tell me that he found it interesting that 'this article' was 'picked up'. Such a subtle way to toot one's own horn, no? And then he asked for that thread to be pulled so his identity wouldn't be exposed (after he TOLD all who he was).

So maybe he and WND are a perfect match...both full of hot air, very little substance, and a penchant for being disruptive?

[MissAmericanPie]

Kind of like sending a billion a year to Mexico in Social Security? Or ripping up the newly signed Welfare Reform bill by throwing the care and feeding of immigrants on the back of taxpayers instead of their sponsers?

School systems, hospitals and entire states going broke taking care of illegals? Liberal stuff like that? Heck no we don't want the Democrats doing stuff like that, let us do it.=o)

[Willie Green]

he's still practicing medicine, Willie, just not the way you're used to seeing with the typical DR office and staff approach.

I had more the "treating the patient" approach in mind.
Granted, there are a lot of sick people in the Senate, but IMHO, they're incurable.

[Willie Green]

No Willie, you don't make sense, as usual.

So you resort to personal attacks instead of discussing the topic, as usual.

[Texas Mom]

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.

Before Lott even handed in his resignation I said the Democraps would be searching the history of everyone who might become majority speaker to demonize them.

[rohry]

What a stupid article!

"Columbia/HCA has also been the focus of the government’s longest-running health care fraud inquiry. On Wednesday, HCA announced an $880 million settlement with the Justice Department."

Did you know that no Frist was at the helm when the so-called "fraud" was occuring? (Senator Frist has never worked for HCA, by the way.) Do you know that most hospitals were "overbilling" Medicare. HCA was picked by the Reno "Justice department" because it was the largest hospital corporation in the country...

"If there was substantial fraud committed in that company, what did the Frist family know and when did they know it?"

As I said, the Frists were not in charge of the company when this "fraud" took place. They fired the CEO and re-took control after the government brought their case against the company...

Citing Newsweek articles and the "non-partisan Center for Public Integrity" is pretty lame. Go to the Center for Public Integrity's Website and tell me it's not some left wing group...

[montag813]

First the idiots over at "Human Events" and now et tu WND?

Sheesh, Frist has had nothing to do with HCA during its decades-old past. When he returned from Harvard Med School he even chose to practice at Vanderbilt U. Hospital, ignoring the many HCA-owned hospitals in the state of Tennessee.

Frist will be our leader. It's time for so-called Conservatives to shut the hell up and stand together to defeat Hillary & Co. I am so sick of these holier-than-thou a**holes trying to bring a good man down.

[justshe]

Frist will be our leader.
It's time for so-called Conservatives to
shut the hell up and stand together to defeat Hillary & Co.
I am so sick of these holier-than-thou a**holes trying to bring a good man down.

[Salvation]

I really don't think that Frist will get the nomination for the Majority Leader of the Senate. You can tell me I am wrong on Monday when they have their conference call.

I just don't think that he is conservative enough, and I know when it comes to money........the most conservative Republicans give a lot of money! Especially if anything for their cause will be coming up for a vote.

[Salvation]

From the ACU website.

Senator Bill Frist (R)
Tennessee
Republican, Years of Service: 7

ACU Ratings for Senator Frist:
Year 2001	100
Year 2000	92
Lifetime	88

Senator Trent Lott (R)
Mississippi
Republican, Years of Service: 29

ACU Ratings for Senator Lott:
Year 2001	96
Year 2000	100
Lifetime	93

Senator Mitch Mcconnell (R)
Kentucky
Republican, Years of Service: 17

ACU Ratings for Senator Mcconnell:
Year 2001	96
Year 2000	100
Lifetime	89

Senator Don Nickles (R)
Oklahoma
Republican, Years of Service: 21

ACU Ratings for Senator Nickles:
Year 2001	92
Year 2000	100
Lifetime	96

Senator Rick Santorum (R)
Pennsylvania
Republican, Years of Service: 11

ACU Ratings for Senator Santorum:
Year 2001	100
Year 2000	100
Lifetime	86

[MI_too]

Bill Frist has more problems that will become evident to conservatives as we look more closely:

He is not pro-life; he may mouth the words, but his actions sing a different song. More on that another time.

He has repeatedly acted against the best interests of gun owners and the Second Amendment. I received a rather concise description of those acts in this e-mail message from Citizens of America, a staunchly conservative organization whose purpose is to protect our Second Amendment rights. The following is copied verbatim from it:

A Washington Post report
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14370-2002Dec19.html
claims "Sen. [Bill] Frist Emerges as Potential Lott Successor...the second-term Tennessean issued a statement saying he would 'likely step forward' if Republicans decided they want Trent Lott of Mississippi to step down..."

What does that mean for gun owners?

Simply that they will be replacing one oathbreaker with another—and one with a worse record on guns. According to Gun Owners of America's Senate ratings,
(http://gunowners.org/107srat.htm) Lott came in with a shameful "C-". Frist merits an abominable D", despite
an "Archives of Surgery" report:
http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/issues/v133n10/ffull/slt1098-1.html claiming he "has accepted substantial campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association." (According to Common Cause, the NRA gave Frist over $177,000 in 1998-1999.)
( http://commoncause.org/publications/nov99/110599.htm )

Among Frist's actions that resulted in his abysmal GOA score? Helping kill the filibuster on the Shays-Meehan Incumbent Protection bill, a sham "campaign finance reform" measure "which squelches the voice of pro-gun organizations." http://gunowners.org/a032102.htm

Voting "AGAINST the Smith filibuster and in favor of sending the [Gore-Lautenberg] anti-gun crime bill to a House-Senate conference committee." http://gunowners.org/a072999.htm

Being one of "the Republicans who betrayed gun owners and voted for the anti-gun crime bill (S. 254)..."
http://gunowners.org/a052199.htm

Joining other stupid Republicans who "retreated and gave up
significant 2nd Amendment ground. On two separate occasions, scores of Republicans crossed party lines to support gun control proposals." http://gunowners.org/a051499.htm

Voting "to confirm anti-gun Dr. David Satcher as the next Surgeon General...[and] liberal, judicial activist (Ms. Margaret Morrow) a seat on the federal bench..." http://gunowners.org/a022198.htm

Voting against the interests of gun owners on these key issues:
"Government wiretapping of innocent citizens and gun owners"
"Anti-gun terror bill" "Anti-gun terror bill -- final passage"
"Lautenberg Domestic Confiscation Gun Ban" "Kohl 'Gun Free Zones' Ban" http://gunowners.org/104svote.htm

Memo to stupid Republicans: Time and again, gun owners have
handed you victory. Yet time and again you betray us, figuring we have no choice but to support the lesser of two evils. Enough of us have wised up to you and refuse to play this game any longer. Continued betrayal of your oath of office and of the Constitution will no longer be tolerated--and there are enough of us who are enraged by your infidelity to deny you that critical margin of a percentage point or two by which most elections are won.

Trent Lott has been an unprincipled disaster—his being forced to fall on his sword is a good thing. But Bill Frist is a completely unacceptable replacement. Republicans will elect him Senate majority leader at the risk of enraging and alienating the most reliable constituency they have ever had.

Memo to gun owners: If you agree that electing Bill Frist will be a slap in the face to gun owners with dangerous potential once he's in power, let the Republican leadership know. Demand that they elect a leader who is committed to protecting the entire Bill of Rights. Tell them you will accept nothing less. Contact them immediately.

EMAIL them at: info@rnc.org and webmaster@nrsc.org and at any other edresses you have, particularly your Senator's if he or she is a Republican.

MUCH BETTER: Write to them via regular mail at Republican
National Committee, 310 First Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003. Call them at (202)863-8500. Fax them at (202)863-8820.

Do it now. Let them know they are creating a huge problem that does not need to be. Help nip this in the bud before Frist gains unstoppable political momentum ­ and to let them know you’ll be watching closely if he IS voted in.

[cynicom]

Miss...

Writing in a name on a local or perhaps a state election is indeed a strong message. However on a national election the message gets lost do to the number of different names entered. I have run county wide campaigns with write-ins and won in a landslide.

In a national election, the same would be a monumental and expensive task.

One of the things I always did on county elections was to compare the total votes cast with the votes cast for different individuals. It is very amazing to see how many votes were withheld from different candidates with few or no write-ins. The total number of votes withheld collectively is higher than one might expect.

Just perhaps, another Ross Perot will appear in the next two years. If so, we all know what will be the outcome. I am not anti or pro anyone, just looking at the political picture.

[DLfromthedesert]

Medicare fraud ... do you realize how EASY it is to commit Medicare fraud? Lots of INNOCENT doctors and institutions are caught in this web of forgetting to dot "i"s or some such nonsense on their interminable forms.

I bet anyone of us could be audited and found guilty of tax evasion because of the overarching bureaucratic regulations on EVERY aspect of our lives.

I'm GLAD Frist is involved in health care issues; he KNOWS something about the stupidity of the bureaucracy. We would ALL benefit from LESS of it, and HE KNOWS IT!!!

[cynicom]

DLF....

That fraud was near a BILLION dollars and the company PLEADED GUILTY to 69 felonies. Mind that, they pleaded guilty to defrauding nearly a billion TAX dollars. TAX dollars. Why on earth would you plead guilty if it was just a few bucks here and there????

The Frist family was the founder of the company, is still the largest shareholder and they sit on the board of directors. Their company steals a billion tax dollars and we are supposed to give Frist a pass????,

More and more people here on FR are sounding like the Clinton apologists that gave the Clintons a pass on everything. The top of this page says this is a conservative forum, not a republican apology page.

[MissAmericanPie]

Do you know how the outcome of his leadership effected the individuals ability to sue an HMO? What effect did he have on the patients bill of rights? On Medicare? Did he pull the teeth of the Patients Bill of Rights or beef it up? Was his leadership on Medicare good, bad, do we even know and how do we find out?

Hospital over charging of medicare has been a national disgrace and notorious as well, and no, it was not merely a few little bookkeeping mistakes, it was trumpeted by the press as major fraud that reached into the billions, as I remember. It wasn't that many years ago that it was major news, now we find one of the major players in that scandal rocketing up the political ladder and emerging as Senate Majority leader. To me that begs a few questions, I hope the answers are good, but this is D.C. we are talking about and the news out of there very rarely is good.

[MHGinTN]

I had more the "treating the patient" approach in mind. Granted, there are a lot of sick people in the Senate, but IMHO, they're incurable. There are a lot of sick people in Africa where he travels regularly --on his own funds, not tax doallrs-- to practice medicine when there. Your notion is interesting though; I wonder if heart transplants would help the Democrats stop championing abortion and particulalry partial birth indfanticide?

[Willie Green]

There are a lot of sick people in Africa where he travels regularly --on his own funds, not tax doallrs-- to practice medicine when there.

Frist can afford airfare to Africa like most Americans can afford a burger and fries at Mickey-D's.

What is "regularly"?
A week at a time, 2~3 times a year?
Just enough to add a few "attaboy" plaques to his trophy wall?

He's still a part-timer.
It's a waste of his skills if he's not actually treating patients full-time.

[DLfromthedesert]

Most Republicans were against these measures. Dems inserted in the bill allowing lawsuits against HMOs the inclusion of employers. This would have driven more employers to drop health care benefits. This was a bill that would have benifited only the trial lawyers and those who want to nationalize health care.

Ditto the "Patients Bill of Rights". We have ONE Bill of Rights and that's all we need. We don't need more federal legislation; what we need is getting programs like Medicare AWAY from the Feds.

So if Frist was against these disasters, good for him!!!

[Slyfox]

Skeletons Rattling In Frist's Closet?

The better question would be: "Is there anything Hillary can exploit in Frist's record?"