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Alongside all the hype and chatter about the January 6 anniversary, there was another worthy news story the first week of 2022. On Monday, January 3, a federal jury in California convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes on three counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to defraud investors. Holmes, six years removed from being the richest self-made woman in the world, now faces as many as twenty years in prison, though she will likely receive less. While it’s always good to see criminals receive their just desserts, there is another upbeat aspect to the Holmes saga. The conviction of...

On Monday's Amanpour & Co. on PBS and CNN International, the program showed a pre-recorded interview between NPR weekend anchor Michel Martin and former Republican Senator Bill Frist in which Martin tried to suggest hypocrisy on the part of pro-life Republicans who have pushed to reopen some states during the pandemic. Frist bristled at her attempt to link the pandemic to abortion and scolded her for doing so: "You can go to abortion and talk about -- make it political -- I'm not going to go there -- you can try to force it there." As the two discussed the...

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) warned Republicans against continuing their "assault" against Robert Mueller, writing in an op-ed Friday that the GOP must let Mueller continue his investigation. In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, the former Tennessee Republican urged Republicans to fight for the "rule of law," even if it meant going up against the Trump administration. "I am also a Republican because I believe in the rule of law. Republicans must fight for that principle today — even if it means pushing back against a Republican administration," Frist wrote. "It isn’t easy to tell a...

In 2005, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist threatened to end the filibuster for judicial appointments by forcing a mid-session rule change on a majority vote, an act that would have ended two centuries of precedent. Before he could act, though, the Gang of 14 arose, led by Republican John McCain, to preserve the senatorial tradition, brokering a deal that left conservatives fuming by depriving Frist of his partisan majority. Eight years later, with Harry Reid threatening to take the same action on executive-branch appointments, where is that Old Gang of Ours? According to NBC, at least McCain might be riding...

Current GOP members of Congress are not impressed. A week ago, former U.S. Senator and former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) told POLITICO, "I am supportive of exchanges and 'Obamacare' generally." In a commentary in The Week, he asserts, "As a doctor, I strongly believe that people without health insurance die sooner...State exchanges are the solution. They represent the federalist ideal of states as 'laboratories for democracy.'...I love the diversity and the innovation." Frist is talking the talk of the Left. Lack of insurance kills no one. And like many of his former colleagues, Frist must not have read the...

(CNSNews.com) – Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) says obesity threatens America’s “national security” because many people who join the armed forces cannot pass the required physical tests because they are overweight. Frist also cited a 2010 study on the problem entitled “Too Fat To Fight." “Childhood obesity is something much larger than something that just hurts and pulls back and restrains our economic strength. It threatens our security, our national security as a nation,” Frist said on Tuesday at the "Building for a Healthier Future" summit held in Washington, D.C. “Between 1995 and 2008, over 140,000 potential military...

Senate Republicans vow they will retaliate for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision to unilaterally change the Senate’s rules Thursday without prior warning or negotiation. Republican aides say their bosses will now be even more reluctant to allow the Senate to conduct routine business by unanimous consent, forcing Reid to gather 60 votes for even the most mundane matters. “Reid fired a major salvo and it’s hard to imagine a return shot won’t be fired. Maybe over the weekend they’ll come up with something and try to make it less worse than it already is,” said a Senate...

FBI hazardous material experts searched a home where police found pipe bombs and a jar containing the potentially deadly poison ricin, federal agents said Friday. The ricin was found in a baby food jar in a shed of the home owned by a man who went to jail last week for violating protection orders taken out by his estranged wife, according to local and federal officials. The jar was sealed, and officials don't believe the middle-class neighborhood in east Nashville was threatened, although the one-story brick house and part of the street remained cordoned off. Investigators found three blasting caps...

A top Republican has come out against efforts by his party to repeal President Obama's health care reform bill currently underway in the House. Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, said at a press conference Tuesday at the Bipartisan Policy Center - an organization he chairs with former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, among others - that the law should stand, according to The Huffington Post. "It is not the bill that [Republicans] would have written," he said. "It is not the bill that I would have drafted. But it is the law of the land and it...

May 24, 2010 – SPECIAL REPORT from WAYNE MADSEN. Obama and Emanuel: Members of same gay bath house in Chicago President Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel are lifetime members of the same gay bath house in uptown Chicago, according to informed sources in Chicago’s gay community, as well as veteran political sources in the city. The bath house, Man’s Country, caters to older white men and it has been in business for some 30 years and is known as one of uptown Chicago’s “grand old bathhouses.” WMR was told by sources who are familiar with the bath...

Americans want bipartisan solutions for major social and economic issues; they don't want legislative gimmicks that force unpopular legislation through the Senate. Thomas Jefferson once referred to the Senate as "the cooling saucer" of the legislative process. Using budget reconciliation in this way would dramatically alter the founders' intent for the Senate, and transform it from cooling saucer to a boiling teapot of partisanship. Mr. Reid was right to rule out this option when this saga began last year. He would be wise to abandon it today.

Former Tennessee Senator Bill Frist says Congress will pass a healthcare overhaul bill by Christmas. But he says it will push costs onto the states that will crimp funds for education. ... Frist also says the bill fails to tackle tort or malpractice issues. But he calls the insurance reform in the bill “very good,” saying people who have lost jobs or don’t make much money will be able to get insurance, as will those with preexisting conditions.

Or so the former Senate Republican Leader, a surgeon who has written a new book on health care, told me a few minutes ago in an interview. Were he still in the Senate, "I would end up voting for it," he said. "As leader, I would take heat for it. ... That's what leadership is all about." This is not to say that Frist is entirely happy with everything that is in the bill. For one thing, he doesn't think it does nearly enough to bring costs under control. In his view, it does not fundamentally change the incentives that...

Editor's note: Bill Frist, a physician, is former Republican majority leader of the U.S. Senate and a professor of medicine and business at Vanderbilt University. (CNN) -- A legacy of President George W. Bush will be that he saved 10 million lives around the world. His critics ignore it, but name another president about whom one can say that with such certainty. It is what historians will say a decade from now looking back. Not bad for a president who leaves office with the lowest approval rating in recent memory. The bottom line is: George Bush is a healer. First,...

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 7 /Standard Newswire/ -- Senator Fred Thompson announced his extensive Tennessee political leadership team today. Senator Howard Baker will serve as the honorary chairman of the Tennessee delegation, joined by 13 honorary co-chairs and 61 honorary state chairs, reflecting the depth of support for Senator Thompson in Tennessee. This leadership team includes two former United States Senate majority leaders, current and former members of Congress, former governors, and every Republican member of the Tennessee state legislature. "I am grateful for the wide support I'm receiving from my home state of Tennessee," said Senator Fred Thompson. "This group...

As you may know, I’ve spent the week traveling to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan meeting with government officials, commanders on the ground, medical doctors, and our heroic men and women in uniform. I visited a small town named Qalat south of Kabul and saw American personnel assisted by Romanian and Afghan allies working hard to build electrical and medical infrastructure in an effort to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghan farmers. I met with Iraqi doctors in Baghdad who’re struggling to do their jobs in an environment made extremely difficult by terrorism and crime. I witnessed...

Is it possible during the tenure of a Republican-controlled Congress and presidency that pro-life legislation with an 80 percent public approval rating won't pass? Yes. And if that happens, the responsibility will rest solely with one man. The measure in question would make it a federal crime for non-parental adults to traffic minor girls for abortions across state lines without notifying her parents. This closes a loophole currently enabling molesters and incest perpetrators not only to kill the evidence of their crime but repeat it. The bottleneck on this bill is the U. S. Senate, where Republican Bill Frist is...

One of the key issues in this fall’s Congressional election will be centered on what has been done to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. As things stand now, there is tremendous frustration over the lack of any meaningful progress on this issue and over the seeming lack of concern on the part of most Democrats, RINO Republican senators and President Bush. Perhaps, though, President Bush has somewhat gotten the message and responded to it (something no Democrat president would do).

THE US Senate has approved $US2 billion ($2.6 billion) in emergency spending for the construction of a fence along the US southwest border with Mexico. The funds were approved as an amendment to a $US435 billion defence spending bill being debated this week. "The Senate acted today to fund a border fence, fulfilling its commitment made in the comprehensive immigration reform bill that authorised the funding," Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist said. Senator Frist described the vote as "another step forward in securing our borders". "With the current National Guard deployment dramatically driving down illegal border crossings by 45...

"We were all an embryo at one point, and we ought to as a society be very careful about being callous about the wanton destruction of embryos, of life," White House aide Karl Rove told the Denver Post this week. He was explaining why President Bush is committed to casting his first-ever veto against a bill -- which may pass the Senate as early as next week -- that would give tax dollars to researchers who deliberately kill human embryos to extract their stem cells. "The president is emphatic about this," Rove said. This veto threat is necessary because of...