WASHINGTON (CNN) --Senate Republicans named Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee as their new leader Monday, a Frist spokesman said.
Frist was unanimously elected majority leader by acclamation in a telephone conference of Republicans in the incoming Senate, the spokesman said.
Forty-two of the 51 Republicans in the upcoming 108th Senate participated in the conference call, said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania.
It was the first time a Senate majority leader was ever elected over the telephone.
The move is aimed at curbing the damage from the racially-charged controversy that led to Sen. Trent Lott's having to relinquish the position.
Sen. Lott took part in the call, CNN learned.
In a statement, President Bush said "I congratulate Senator Bill Frist on his election to Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate.
"Senator Frist has earned the trust and respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I look forward to working with him and all members of the Senate and House to advance our agenda for a safer, stronger, and better America."
Senators were looking for a leader "who could take on a very tough task of bringing together a Republican caucus that is somewhat divided at this point," Republican consultant Cliff May told CNN Monday. "There's some bad feelings, and also in the Senate as a whole there is some bitterness."
Some of that bitterness revolves around Lott.
His comment December 5 in support of Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential bid, which was on a segregationist platform, triggered an avalanche that eventually buried his opportunity to remain Senate Republican leader.
Despite Lott's repeated public apologies and claims that he supports civil rights and equality, public attention was drawn to his record of voting against policies espoused by civil rights leaders and to previous comments supporting Thurmond.
Lott gave up his post as Senate Republican leader Friday.
The 50-year-old Frist has only served in the Senate since 1994, making him a relative newcomer compared to some of the senators he'll represent as majority leader. A surgeon with degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he is the Senate's only practicing physician.
"He's bright, he's attractive," Democratic consultant Victor Kamber told CNN Monday, "but he's only been there seven years. He doesn't know the parliamentary procedure, he doesn't know the legislative process in the way that a schooled person who is going to lead his own party (should). He has not been a deal maker within his own party."
Frist has close ties to the Bush White House. He is outgoing chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee that helped orchestrate November's midterm elections, which were a tremendous success for the GOP.
Sources told CNN the Bush administration preferred him as majority leader in the wake of the controversy over Lott. Publicly, however, President Bush said through aides that he did not see a reason for Lott to resign, and officials said the White House played no active role in Lott's decision.
Still, Frist's relationship with the White House could limit his influence with colleagues, who are wary of a leader trying to push the president's agenda.
"I think there's no question that he has, I would say, support from the White House," said May. But he insisted Frist was not "handpicked" by the president.
Lott said Sunday he would support Frist "if he is the choice" of senators in Monday's vote. "I will make it clear I support our leadership team and will support the agenda I believe in very strongly," Lott said.
While many Republicans have publicly praised Frist, some Democrats have said the entry of a new leader will not fix fundamental problems in the GOP.
"If anyone thinks that one person stepping down from a leadership position cleanses the Republican Party of their constant exploitation of race, then I think you're naive," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said over the weekend.
But Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Connecticut, said Monday that the election of Frist as leader could be a positive move for the Senate.
Calling Frist "a wonderful person" and "a man of faith," Lieberman told CNN "I hope that he'll be a bridge builder and not a partisan divider."
But, Lieberman added, "Unfortunately, these leadership jobs sometimes turn people more partisan than they need to be."