Senate GOP Chooses Frist As New Leader
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans elected Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist as their new leader Monday, a Republican source told The Associated Press. The move ended a two-week political firestorm that brought down former leader Trent Lott and threatened to derail the GOP's efforts to reach out to minorities.
The 50-year-old Frist, a wealthy heart surgeon, will become Senate majority leader when the GOP takes control of the chamber in January.
He was elected during an unprecedented conference call among most of the 51-member Senate Republican Caucus, said the Republican source familiar with the call, who spoke only on conditions of anonymity.
Frist, who participated in the call from his Nashville, Tenn., office, is considered an authority on health issues in the Senate. He still keeps his starched white lab coat in the trunk of his car, makes monthly visits to hospitals and clinics and goes on occasional overseas medical missions. When the anthrax scare surfaced on Capitol Hill last year, he worked to calm his colleagues.
The election originally was scheduled for Jan. 6 - when all senators return to Washington for the beginning of the new congressional session - but several Republican senators wanted to try and put Lott's controversy behind them before returning to the Capitol to work.
Lott lost the confidence of the Senate GOP after remarks earlier this month at a birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., praising the retiring senator's 1948 pro-segregation presidential campaign.
The GOP now is counting on Frist to project the image of a party open to minorities as they prepare to take control of the Senate and confront a host of difficult issues. And with senators still scattered around the country for the holidays, a telephone conference was the only way to get enough lawmakers in one spot to quickly put Frist in place.
The AP just had to throw that in. But when other details may tell alot about a man's character, like...
Frist, who participated in the call from his Nashville, Tenn., office, is considered an authority on health issues in the Senate. He still keeps his starched white lab coat in the trunk of his car, makes monthly visits to hospitals and clinics and goes on occasional overseas medical missions.
The "overseas" medical missions are trips to Africa to perform FREE surgeries. I wonder why the AP didn't disclose that little tid bit. Would it appear that maybe Hillary was wrong about those racist republicans?
Funny, when they write about Ted Kennedy, do they say...?
The 72 year old Kennedy, a wealthy son of a bootlegger...