Frist: Time to Step Down

Cross-posted at RedState.org.

An astute observer might have noticed some time ago that we're not the biggest fans of Bill Frist, generally speaking, here at RedState.org. As a majority leader, I have long been of the opinion that he is ineffective, and he has certainly shown a willingness as an individual Senator to stab both social and fiscal conservatives. There are no other constituencies of the Republican party left to fail.

Unless, of course, you want to examine the fact that he is failing his own constituents in Tennessee by leaving the fight for the 118th Air Lift Wing entirely to Democrat governor Phil Bredesen. Oh yeah, he's also mired in personal scandal that is likely to get much worse before it gets better.

The situation is clear. Bill Frist cannot at this current time act effectively as Senate Majority Leader for the Republican Party, and should step aside from his position immediately.

As majority leader, Frist was badly outmaneuvered by Harry Reid in the fight over the judges, and ultimately allowed his leadership to be hijacked by John McCain. Anything involving John McCain taking positions of leadership is generally bad for the GOP, in the minds of most Republicans.

Also as majority leader, Bill Frist voted against the Coburn amendment which attempted to bring fiscal responsibility to the Senate. Given the manner in which spending has increased during his tenure, this was an unsurprising, if disappointing, vote.

As a Senator, Bill Frist publicly betrayed the trust of social conservatives by flip-flopping on embryo destruction at a critical moment in the fight.

Also as a Senator representing the people of Tennessee, Bill Frist's efforts to save the 118th Air lift Wing from the BRAC have been virtually non-existent. Contrary to the example of John Thune, Bill Frist has stood idly by and allowed Democrat Phil Bredesen to play hero to the people of Tennessee yet again. I sometimes believe that he is actively trying to give his seat to Harold Ford, Jr. in 2006.

Also, accusations that Frist has engaged in insider trading and spurious stock sales have grown louder and more serious. The prima facie case against Frist looks very strong indeed. The defense against these accusations will undoubtedly consume untold hours of Frist's time, and will also damage his reputation, and the reputation of the party. During the next few months, he will be unable to devote his time and energy to advancing the GOP agenda.

Of course, given Frist's version of "advancing the GOP agenda," this might actually be cause for celebration.

The case is clear. It is time for Bill Frist to step aside as Senate Majority Leader, and allow someone more effective (Jon Kyl?) to take the helm.

Comments

[DL]

While I'm no big fan of Frist, it is more than just a little disengenuous on the part of his critics to attack his making a few bucks on the market due to political advantage - or have we forgotten the neat little six figure pork-belly trading the most intelligent woman in the world pulled a few years back?

A little recycling of the left's knee-jerk defense of her, might be fun for quoting purposes at this time.

Frist, in my book can be easily replaced by any RINO that enjoys playing with embyonic stem cells.

[Dwilkers]

I'm conservative more than I am Republican. Frist's behavior bothers me greatly if - BIG IF - what's being reported is true, and what the HillBilly did with her crooked little transaction is irrelevant because she wasn't an elected official.

And just because the HillBilly is a crooked little twerp doesn't mean its ok for Republicans to be crooks too. I don't think we should tolerate this from ANY of our elected leaders.

The first scandal in this from my perspective is that if what's being reported is true then Frist's "blind trust" wasn't blind at all. According to the ABC News website he denied having any knowledge about owning HCA stock (which would be true if the trust was really blind) but later documents show his trustee sent him an update on how much HCA stock he owned 2 weeks prior to that statement.

The whole point of a "blind trust", which is commonly used by politicians of all stripes, is that their holdings are handled by someone else without their involvement so there is no conflict of interest in their actions as elected leaders. If the trustees are sending reports to let them know what stock they own then the entire purpose of the "blind trust" is reduced to a darn lie. If the same politicos are giving buy/sell orders to their trustees it is an even more egregious darn lie.

I don't know if that's common among politicos but if it is then its about time we learned it.

[DL]

You did a yeoman's job at covering the issue. There is little I can add, but to say that I won't miss him in the least. The word competence was my earlier concern, but after the stem-cell game it became character. Now it it time for Bill to go!

[Moochzilla]

Soft Taco...

1918 Iraq war dead. Now would be a great time to remind me how many died in World War I, and how the volume of dead in that war render all other wars meaningless. Did I mention that was a great post a few months back?

But you guys are right about Frist, he's a total chimp. On that surely we all agree.

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

Nice work, W! At last, a great menace to the nation is apprehended!

Osama Bin Laden: Free
Cindy Sheehan: Arrested

But W always plays tough when women are the target. Cindy Sheehan. Mrs. McCain. Valerie Plame. Kerry's wife. The list goes on.

[Dwilkers]

So...you think Bush had Sheehan arrested Mooch?

[Buffy]

Those who don't have the complete story on Frist should not go off the deep end until they have all the facts (and that means not from the MSM). Don't get stuck on stupid.. as Gen. Honore so astutely said.

[Buffy]

Mooch...
"But W always plays tough when women are the target. Cindy Sheehan. Mrs. McCain. Valerie Plame. Kerry's wife. The list goes on."

I laugh at your inferior intellect.

[Dwilkers]

Well I sure am glad I added the qualifier "if - BIG IF - what's being reported is true" since from what I can tell now it looks like another big fat pile of media hokum.

As far as Mooch's post, I don't know what part of it to laugh at. His holding Bush responsible for Sheehan forcing the police to arrest her, maybe his implication that Bush did something nefarious to McCain's or Kerry's *wives*.

Or the incredible political "do as I say not as I do" (I'm fighting off calling it hypocrisy) implications of his even going there after Clinton had private detectives - laundered through lawyers - running around the country for 8 years tormenting all the women he'd sexually *pursued* (again, I'm trying to be nice) his adult life.

[Moochzilla]

Buffy - you are correct. After all, he ran from Katrina and cowered from Rita!

Dwilkers, my point is to present the irony of the situation. Also, this has been sloppy PR on the part of the White House. It was basic PR to meet with this woman over the summer. Behind closed doors, he could've just nodded his head and said "I feel your pain". No concessions needed to be made, it could've even been one of his patented photo-ops. Approval ratings would've gone up. We all know someone who did this to great effect back in the 90's. She would've been out of the news cycle by the time people got back from vacation. Now, look at this mess. And it was all so unncessary. Yet another task this administration bungled.

Not sure either of you understand the point on W's tactics of going after political opponents through their wives. Bush family plays hardball, surely you know this...

I'm surprised you (apparently) do not know this but McCain wife's was portrayed as a drug addict during the South Carolina 2000 primaries by Bush push polling. Also, there was a rumor spread that McCain fathered an African American child out of wedlock. Yet another rumor suggested that McCain was a "Manchurian Candidate" project who cracked under Vietnamese torture and turned in other POW's while in captivity. The Swift Boat guy orchestrated the latter. Do you really not know about this? He went from way up on Bush to losing the primary - basically derailed his campaign. Fear was that McCain would win with bipartisan support - I would probably have voted for him over 'hypothetical democratic challenger' and bet many other would've.

[Moochzilla]

And why does Bill always get brought into it when Republicans get caught doing something naughty?

Bill was running around behind his wife, a personal flaw I have a huge problem with. He was wrong. I feel awful for his family. I felt that it was bad for the country that we became obsessed with his personal life - just as I think it is tawdry for the National Equirer to run stories that maybe W is drinking again.

But I did much better financially when Clinton was in. I felt like there was a positive attitude about the country. I always tell people that Reagan and Clinton are the best presidents of my lifetime - you believed good things were going to happen. And they usually did.

[Dwilkers]

Its has exactly the same relevance to the post as your comment Mooch - that is, precisely none.

[Moochzilla]

No, I think it was the assumption that I would never be able to criticize a Democrat. I constantly get the Clinton womanizing and the Bryd KKK thing thrown at me. Never sure why.

[Dwilkers]

Maybe the same reason as you throwing up nonsense like that first post?

Worth some thought dude.

[Moochzilla]

I am here to update the war dead for Soft Taco, since he does not believe their sacrifice merits recognition. All else is just opportunistic popshots, I confess.

But there is validity to that observation about how that sticky Sheehan issue (and for that matter the Plame affair or the McCain smear) got 'handled' and how OBL lingers on. "Dead or Alive", right? He said it reminded him of the Old West posters. What am I missing? 86ing OBL is the biggest mission the nation has had since Pearl Harbor Day. How is it W cannot even say his name?

And here is where it matters - because W can take the bad PR from letting the Sheehan issue fester unnecessarily. But he is unwilling to get tough with Pakistan and get OBL. Because his image in Islamabad is, I suppose, more important than his image in America. What else can be concluded? You're a smart guy, you know exactly where OBL is - and you know that (LBJ Vietnam style) the US is prevented from searching 'sensitive areas' (Western Pakistan). Because God forbid we'd anger the terrorists, right? Then they might hate us.

You need to ask yourself: are you helping that or are you hindering it. This is a poll-based presidency (just like every other one) - please motivate this guy to get moving on STARTING the war on terror. Then we can get around to winning it.

Or W can just keep spending hand over fist to enlarge government.

[Dwilkers]

You know Macho, I have really tried to be nice. Really hard.

"I am here to update the war dead for Soft Taco, since he does not believe their sacrifice merits recognition."

Now you see what I mean? I challenge you to prove what you just said.

Got it dipstick? Prove it.

Try to stay on topic, we're not talking about Halliburton or space aliens here, we're talking about your assertion that Macho

"does not believe their sacrifice merits recognition"

in reference to (I assume) Iraq war veterans.

Put up or shut up. Prove it. I don't want to hear about Kerry's wife.

Can you back up what you just said?

[grandpa stole bets]

Program on the emergence of civilization.

"14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. "
Favor.
And disfavor.

They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it's applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.

The roots of racism are not of this earth.

Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.

The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.

AIDS in Africa.

Organizational Heirarchy/Levels of positioning.
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:

1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as "god"
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere

Terrestrial management/positioning:

4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans -
6. Mafia - the real-world 20th century interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.

Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.

Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying "He has more money than god." There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says "I'm too old and rich for this."

This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.

I don't want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.

But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won't help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help.

The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.

I offer an example of historical proportions:::

People point to Walmart and cry "anti-union".
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family's problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an enviornment where there are fewer hurdles.

Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people's belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the indistry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.

The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no assistance from their purchases with corporate america.

I believe the coining of the term "Uncle Sam" was a clue alluding to just this::Sam Walton and WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.

Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals, malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they "decided" who they didn't want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren't their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.

Royalty is the right way to organize a society. Dictatorships and monarchies are a reflection of the antient's hierarchical organization.
Positions go to those who have favor with the rulers, as opposed to being elected.
Elections bring a false sense of how the world is. Democracy misleads people.
Which is why the disfavored rejects were sent to the shores of America::To keep them on the wrong path.

Jews maim the body formed in the image of "god", and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ.
I think about how Jews (were used to) created homosexuality among Slavics, retribution for the Holocaust.
Then I think of the Catholic Church and its troubles.
What connection is here between Jews and the Catholic church???
If it is their sinister motives that’s behind the evil that is Jesus Christ are they being used at all?
Perhaps it is them who are pulling strings.
Their centuries of slavery in Egypt proves their disfavor.
The Jew leaders decided to prey on the up-and-coming Europeans to try to fix their problems with the ruling elite, a recurring aspect of the elite's methodology.

Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. The seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.

Since Buddism doesn't recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones.
Budda was the Asian's Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. "They came up at the same time for a reason."

Simpson's foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. "Last one you ever suspect."
"You'll see lots of nuns where you're going:::hell!!!" St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.

I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians who attack "god"'s most favored people will pay dearly one day.