No Shame for Liberals

Bill Frist is the Majority Leader of the Senate, a former heart surgeon and two-term senator from Tennessee with presidential aspirations. He is relatively spotless (there's some interesting stories about animals from his med-school days that will not endear him to pet lovers) but by all accounts a decent and dedicated public servant. He rose to one of the highest leadership positions in his second term and is retiring from the Senate at the end of that second term in 2006.

He was a pioneer in heart transplantation, creating the center at Vanderbilt University that is now world-renowned. His brother and father have also been successful, operating a health care business, HCA. Senator Frist has stock in the company that was placed into a blind trust when he was elected. The company has done well recently, posting 50% gains two years ago, I believe.

Earlier this spring, Sen. Frist consulted the Senate Ethics Committee about selling his shares of HCA, to avoid any appearances of impropriety in his presidential bid. The committee approved. On June 13, his fund managers were directed to sell all shares of HCA, which were at their highest share price, $58.60.

In July, *a month later*, the company announced earnings would be below expectations and the stock fell about 10%. No scandal inside the company, no major sellout that left poor, old people without pensions. As of right now, the stock is trading at $47.50.

Somehow, this has turned into a major scandal that supposedly threatens a 2008 run for the White House. So far, no major editorial pages have come out with demands for his resignation, probably because they're learning from having to backtrack so quickly about their instant condemnation of the federal government's Katrina handling that wasn't endorsed by the public.

The issue is further complicated because the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, former Rep. Chris Cox, was a Congressional colleague of Sen. Frist and donated to his campaign in 2000. Mr. Cox has recused himself from the investiagtion, but I don't think facts or decency will mean much to his critics.

Anyway, here's my prediction: Frist will come out squeaky clean, and nobody will even mention this...for now. Dems to bring this up in the primaries in early 2008 as their candidates are infighting about who ran away from Iraqi freedom that fastest.