Bill Frist for President?

POWER LINE ^ | Auagust 30, 2006 | John Hinderaker

[yoe]

I spent part of the day today with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He is, of course, a very impressive guy: a physician, a heart and lung transplant surgeon, an upstart politician, a hands-on doctor in places like Sudan and New Orleans, and one of the most powerful people in our government. Despite those obvious accomplishments and Frist's skills as a legislator, I've always felt that he lacks the executive persona necessary to be a strong Presidential candidate.

Maybe. But I was impressed by the close-up contact I had today. Frist is deadly serious about the war on terror, the pre-eminent issue of our era. He tells a chilling story of receiving a call from President Bush a week before the recent British airline bomb plot was disrupted. The message at that time, communicated to less than a handful of top federal officials, was that a terrorist plan was known to be in progress which could kill several thousand Americans, but there was no assurance that it could be stopped. It was stopped, thankfully, and news accounts suggest that the very terrorist surveillance programs now under attack by the Democrats were instrumental in saving thousands of American lives. Senator Frist is fully committed to using all of the appropriate tools at our command to win the war against Islamic terror, and September will see a series of legislative initiatives designed to strengthen our defenses against the terrorists.

Frist is also acutely aware of the relationship between petroleum prices and the funding of Islamic terror. Energy independence is not just a desirable economic goal, it is a national security mandate. Hundreds of millions of dollars are needlessly being poured into the coffers of terror-supporting states because the Democratic Party blocks every effort to develop our own energy resources.

The Majority Leader also made a point on taxes that surprised nearly all of his listeners. If you take a family of four, with an average American income of $64,000 per year, and assume that the Democrats regain control of either the House or the Senate and block the extension of the Bush tax cuts, as they are committed to doing, what would be the impact on that average family? A federal tax increase of 58%. That's what the Democratic Party stands for.

Based on my observations today, Senator Frist is a highly viable Presidential candidate. His intelligence, competence, judgment and reliability cannot be questioned. His views are compatible with those of the Republican base across a broad range of issues. He needs to beef up his Presidential persona, by, for example, learning what to do with his legs when he is addressing a group. (Then again, President Bush never mastered that particular skill.) But such cosmetic issues are minor.

When Republican voters start thinking seriously about a candidate for 2008, if they are concerned by the quirkiness of both John McCain--whom, by the way, Frist was careful to praise today--and Rudy Giuliani, should he run, and if they look for a more mainstream conservative candidate, Frist should be at the top of the heap. With all due respect to Senator George Allen, it would seem that Senator Frist has a more powerful claim on the loyalties of the party's faithful.

Consider me impressed.

[ItsForTheChildren]

No spine.
No balls.
No vote.

[ottersnot]

yawn, so not interesting.

[Vision]

Everytime that i look in the mirror
All these lines on my face gettin' clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dust to dawn
Isn't that the way
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay

I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win


Half my life's in books written pages
Lived and learnd from fools and from sages
You know it's true
All these things come back to you
(all the things you do, motherfucker, come back to you)**


Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter 'n sing for the tears
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Mabye tomorrow the good lord will take you away


Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream yourself a dream come true
Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream until your dream comes true
Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream on, dream on, dream on, dream on


Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter 'n sing for the tears
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away

[xzins]

Rino impulses

Frist has an extremely high ACU rating; far higher than Giuliani would get if he'd had votes to hold against him.

Frist is personally responsible for engineering the Republican majorities in the Senate for the previous 2 (3?) election cycles. His only mistake that I remember is his stem cell vote. I can forgive him for that.

Frist is no Rino. He is more conservative than all but a few Senators. With him as President we'd certainly get more constitutionalist judges.

I will support him for president in the primaries OVER McCain, Giuliani, Romney, and Tancredo. I don't know enough about Allen, so I'll probably support him over Allen until Allen gets better at explaining himself.

My preferred candidate remains our Vice President.

[nonliberal]

I know of no liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat who is willing to do that, or even wants to.

I have noticed that nobody in Congress even TRIES to justify legislation under the Constitution anymore?

[nonliberal]

Does it bother you that below the listings for "microphallus" there is a Slurpee ad?

[Nickey]

Frist makes Arnie look like a conservative.