Is Frist the next Martha Stewart?

ept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- At the start of this year, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was looking at a bright political future. He led his party to an expanded majority in the Senate in November and emerged as a leading Republican hopeful for the 2008 presidential race.

Less than nine months later, that picture appears darker. Frist, 53, now faces inquiries into his stock sales by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission that threaten to undermine him politically and provide Democrats fresh ammunition with which to question their opponents' ethics.

``If there is really any evidence of insider trading, then he's in very serious trouble, and so is his party,'' said Gary Jacobson, professor of political science at the University of California in San Diego. ``It adds another brick to Democrats' argument that Republicans are corrupt.''

<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aYyQPZcoBolY&refer=us#" target="_blank">Frist
Future Darkens</a>

Of course Bloomberg is alluding to Republican leaders.

 

I was ready to dump him on the stem cell research issue for not supporting the President and then letting the President read what he had done in the newspapers instead of telling him in advance. It was Bush who put him where he is today. I think that Frist is too intellectual to deal with the mud-throwing that earmarks American politics. Good manners are fine but that does not mean that one does not hold the line in politics. When he retires in 2006, that should be the end of him politically.

However, I will say that at the present time there is no evidence of wrong-doing but there is evidence of political ineptness.