[roderick]

Remember, only Republicans can have conflicts of interest.

[The Wizard]

after the tax failure I'm beginning to wonder if he should be in any debate.....

I was so proud he didn't back down from Estrada, but this tax this thing is a complete failure, and that must be fixed.

And Grassley, caving to snowe and voinovitch.......let's hope there's more we don't know

[Dudesdad]

I am sorry but I have to agree, Frist should recuse himself - and all the Lawyers should too. That would settle the aurgument of conflict of interest.

[Dudesdad]

I am sorry but I have to agree, Frist should recuse himself - and all the Lawyers should too. That would settle the aurgument of conflict of interest.

[steve50]

''If irony were not dead, we would surely notice how strange it is that the future of Medicare is in the hands of someone whose family business is paying enormous fines to settle charges of defrauding that very same program.''

But it's in a blind trust, so I guess that makes everything alright.

[ghostrider]

Medical costs have accelerated like the national debt. Eventually, they will consume everything. That fact is already obvious to the 30 percent who have no or insufficient insurance. Adequate family coverage runs about $700 per month for 80 percent coverage. That's $8,400 per year for the family who doesn't have medical problems. For those families actually hit with major medical problems, bankruptcy is a real probability.

[KC_for_Freedom]

''Bill Frist needs to get his butt back in medicine where he can help people or give up his medical license while he's serving in the Senate. He doesn't need to do both.''

Frist has as much right to his intelectual property as anyone else. The fact that an elected doctor finds himself in a debate about health care is refreshing. At least he understands the debate from a fresh perspective.

I suppose Bush should recuse himself from an arguement about baseball, or ranchers?

[Nick Danger]

This is the standard liberal crapola that they used to be able to sell. But that was back in the days when only liberals had access to printing presses and microphones.

Listen to this crap... "He is pushing legislation that is advantageous to for-profit hospitals," said Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program. OK, so here's the advocate for socialized medicine claiming that an advocate for privatized medicine has no right to be at the table. And here's Larry Bivins, "objective reporter," giving him ink in a newspaper to say that. What rubbish.

And no, Larry-the-objective-reporter doesn't get to hide behind the fact that he threw in one line at the end of this collection of Quotes-For-Democrats that points out that the lawyers have a stake in this, too. How many Senators are lawyers? Ninety-five per cent?

"You shut up and give our side the whole stage" is a game that is over. It's over for Larry Bivins, and it's over for all these liberal ideologues pretending to be journalists.

[WaterDragon]

Did Hillary vote on the Campaign Finance Reform bill?

[not_apathetic_anymore]

As soon as Tom Daschle excuses himself in airline discussions that impact his wifes lobbying then we'll discuss whether Frist has a 'conflict of interest' or 'expertise'in the Medicare area.

[pchuck]

''Bill Frist needs to get his butt back in medicine where he can help people or give up his medical license while he's serving in the Senate. He doesn't need to do both.''

Now there is some rational discourse. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[cynicom]

Professional ethics would not allow Frist to make a buck, would it???? His family is worth a billion and they are major shareholders in a company that got caught with their hand in medicare cookie jar.

[Mike Darancette]

Every lawyer in the House and Senate should be excluded from the Tort Reform Debate, every black from affirmative action debates, every Jew from the Middle East debate and every Christian from discussions about faith based charities.

[DED]

When all of the Democratic trial lawyers recuse themselves from debates and bills regarding liability law, Frist should step aside from this debate.
The trial lawyers are already costing this nation 3$ of our GDP, and they're going for more.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Silly concern.

[JonH]

God forbid that anyone with real first hand knowledge on the subject of Medicare should participate in the debate. That would risk a practical solution being developed.

[Lancey Howard]

''He is pushing legislation that is advantageous to for-profit hospitals,'' said Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.

The first "critic" of Bill Frist quoted in this column is a socialist scumbag. That tells me all I need to know about the agenda of the author.

Wasn't this paper also unabashedly promoting a state income tax for Tennessee?

[CyberAnt]

Why wouldn't you want a doctor involved in Medicare ...?? I don't see the logic of that.

Wouldn't it be better to have a medical professional who can give that side of the argument ...??

I suppose it would be better to have someone like Susan Davis (who wrote the deregulation legislation which nearly shut the system down in CA), and she's a former social worker from Massachusetts. No wonder deregulation was such a mess.

[MarkL]

I'll go for that, if every lawyer in congress recuses themselves for the debate on tort reform... As well as anyone who has accepted political donations from the Trial Lawyers Assn...

I guess it'll be a pretty long wait.

Mark