Frist hints strongly at White House run
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says his high-profile job is a "terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible" post for seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
Making it clear that a White House bid is all but certain, Frist said that remaining in the Senate would make a presidential run impossible. Frist plans to step down when his second term ends this year.
"I know the perch not to even consider," he said. "That would be, for me, the United States Senate or being majority leader."
Asked if trying to run a campaign from such a position would be difficult, he replied: "Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible."
One of possibly a dozen Republicans interested in the GOP nomination, Frist said late Tuesday that once out of the Senate, "you'll see, as you do now, the real Bill Frist, but unencumbered by having responsibilities of leading this body, which results in negotiated positions."
The most recent senator to succeed in his presidential bid was John F. Kennedy in 1960. Another Massachusetts senator, John Kerry, lost to President Bush in 2004, hampered in part by an extensive Senate voting record that opponents used against him.
In 1996, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas realized that trying to pursue the White House from the Senate's top job would be an obstacle. He resigned in June and lost to President Clinton five months later.
Frist, a heart surgeon, was the White House's choice for majority leader after the undoing of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., whose favorable comments about Strom Thurmond's segregationist past cost him the post in 2002.
Before vaulting into his leadership post, Frist had gained notice as an expert on health care. He was widely credited for offering a reassuring and knowledgeable voice in 2001 when an anthrax-laced letter shut down Congress briefly and closed a Senate building for months of cleaning.
Political analyst Norm Ornstein called the majority leader job a "millstone" around Frist's neck.
"It was the biggest political mistake he made in terms of his political career," said Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Before that, Frist was beyond any doubt an enormous star in national politics."
Ornstein said as majority leader, Frist has had to carry water for an increasingly unpopular president and has had to keep other senators in line, a job former majority leader and fellow Tennessean Howard Baker once described as herding cats.
Frist said as soon as his term ends he will return to Nashville.
"I've got it planned out pretty well in terms of once I leave here. I'll go back and live in the house I grew up in," he said.
Re-establishing those roots could be helpful. Tennessee voters picked George Bush over native son Al Gore in 2000 partly because of concerns that Gore was out of touch. Had Gore carried his state, the presidency would have been his.
Frist has made the customary trips of a presidential candidate, traveling to early primary states New Hampshire and Iowa.
He further demonstrated his determination to be a contender earlier this month when he bused dozens of supporters to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis and emerged as the winner of a straw poll of possible GOP candidates.
Frist still faces political obstacles and may have legal problems.
He is under investigation for possible insider trading after his sale last year of stock in the hospital chain HCA, which his family founded. Frist has said he did nothing wrong.
He acknowledged that he needs to improve his speaking skills, particularly for a campaign.
"I will have to really work hard on it," Frist said. "As a surgeon, I did my best work when people were sound asleep, cutting out their hearts, putting new hearts in.
"And now what I need to do, everybody says, is do your best work and not put people to sleep. That's what I'll work on."
Making it clear that a White House bid is all but certain, Frist said that remaining in the Senate would make a presidential run impossible. Frist plans to step down when his second term ends this year.
"I know the perch not to even consider," he said. "That would be, for me, the United States Senate or being majority leader."
Asked if trying to run a campaign from such a position would be difficult, he replied: "Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible."
One of possibly a dozen Republicans interested in the GOP nomination, Frist said late Tuesday that once out of the Senate, "you'll see, as you do now, the real Bill Frist, but unencumbered by having responsibilities of leading this body, which results in negotiated positions."
The most recent senator to succeed in his presidential bid was John F. Kennedy in 1960. Another Massachusetts senator, John Kerry, lost to President Bush in 2004, hampered in part by an extensive Senate voting record that opponents used against him.
In 1996, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas realized that trying to pursue the White House from the Senate's top job would be an obstacle. He resigned in June and lost to President Clinton five months later.
Frist, a heart surgeon, was the White House's choice for majority leader after the undoing of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., whose favorable comments about Strom Thurmond's segregationist past cost him the post in 2002.
Before vaulting into his leadership post, Frist had gained notice as an expert on health care. He was widely credited for offering a reassuring and knowledgeable voice in 2001 when an anthrax-laced letter shut down Congress briefly and closed a Senate building for months of cleaning.
Political analyst Norm Ornstein called the majority leader job a "millstone" around Frist's neck.
"It was the biggest political mistake he made in terms of his political career," said Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Before that, Frist was beyond any doubt an enormous star in national politics."
Ornstein said as majority leader, Frist has had to carry water for an increasingly unpopular president and has had to keep other senators in line, a job former majority leader and fellow Tennessean Howard Baker once described as herding cats.
Frist said as soon as his term ends he will return to Nashville.
"I've got it planned out pretty well in terms of once I leave here. I'll go back and live in the house I grew up in," he said.
Re-establishing those roots could be helpful. Tennessee voters picked George Bush over native son Al Gore in 2000 partly because of concerns that Gore was out of touch. Had Gore carried his state, the presidency would have been his.
Frist has made the customary trips of a presidential candidate, traveling to early primary states New Hampshire and Iowa.
He further demonstrated his determination to be a contender earlier this month when he bused dozens of supporters to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis and emerged as the winner of a straw poll of possible GOP candidates.
Frist still faces political obstacles and may have legal problems.
He is under investigation for possible insider trading after his sale last year of stock in the hospital chain HCA, which his family founded. Frist has said he did nothing wrong.
He acknowledged that he needs to improve his speaking skills, particularly for a campaign.
"I will have to really work hard on it," Frist said. "As a surgeon, I did my best work when people were sound asleep, cutting out their hearts, putting new hearts in.
"And now what I need to do, everybody says, is do your best work and not put people to sleep. That's what I'll work on."
posted by SCGOP at 7:17 AM
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