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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...

Related Links Arizona Politics Neither of the frontrunners has publicly committed to running. McCain repeatedly has said he will not decide until after the mid-term elections in November. Clinton also has been vague. Among Republicans, McCain was the top choice among more than 40 percent of those surveyed in the Rocky Mountain Poll. McCain unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination in 2000. He was followed in the survey by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Next were former Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee and Sen. George Allen of Virginia. “Seeing McCain...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is about to have his moment in the conservative sun. The potential 2008 Presidential candidate has had his highs and lows with the conservative base. Frist brought home the bacon by pushing the Democrats to the limits on judicial nominations and finally confirming two conservative all-stars. But he has to date failed to lead Senate Republicans back to their fiscally conservative roots. He also took a position on stem cell research that infuriated the socially conservative base. But now, as the Senate debates the too-hot-to-handle immigration reform issue, Frist has an opportunity to shine yet...

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, frustrated by the sluggish debate over immigration reform at the committee level, plans to introduce a bill that deals solely with border security as early as today. Mr. Frist's bill, according to aides on both sides of the aisle, does not include a guest worker provision or a process for handling the 12 million illegal aliens already in the U.S., divisive topics that have stalled immigration legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border, provide funding for thousands more border patrol agents and build small sections of...

Presidential March Madness Will a Cinderella story emerge today? Conservative House member, first-time tournament candidate and 16 seed, Mike Pence has a big lead over Senate Majority Leader, weekend straw poll winner and heavy favorite, Bill Frist. We also have a close race between Mitt Romney and John Kyl. This one should go down to the wire. Rudy, Condi, Ridge and Thune look like they will have not trouble advancing to Round II If you have not yet voted, you have until 7 PM CST tonight!!! If you have a favorite and they are losing, you better spread the word!...

Restless Republicans are already looking beyond the embattled presidency ... to the 2008 campaign. ... The delegates were voting in an informal "straw poll" to test the popularity of White House hopefuls including those in attendance -- Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. George Allen of Virginia, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. ... Despite controlling the White House and Congress for most of the past five years, many Republicans feel both have fallen short on a number of issues including tax reform, fiscal...

March 11, 2006 SRLC Straw Poll: Frist Wins; Romney Second After five hours of voting and with more than 1,400 ballots cast, The Hotline SRLC Straw Poll has come to a close with a tremendous turnout. Sen. Bill Frist (TN) led the pack with nearly 37% of the vote, followed by MA Gov. Mitt Romney with 14%. Sen. George Allen (VA) was tied for third place with Pres. Bush (10%), despite Bush being a write-in candidate. Hotline Straw Poll Unofficial Results Candidate Raw %age Bill Frist 526 36.9% Mitt Romney 205 14.4 George Allen 147 10.3 Pres. Bush (write in)...

I must confess, none of these guys make me very excited: More than 20 months before any real votes are cast, Republican Senate leader Bill Frist of Tennessee won a straw poll on Saturday of party activists choosing their early favorite in the 2008 White House race. Frist, who packed the home-state crowd with supporters wearing blue "Frist is my leader" buttons, won nearly 37 percent of the 1,427 votes cast by delegates to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was second with 13 percent, while Sen. George Allen of Virginia finished tied for third with President...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - And the winner is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The climax of a three-day gathering of Republican activists from 37 states came Saturday evening in Memphis as Frist won an early test of strength for 2008 GOP presidential contenders. Frist won 36.9 percent of the 1,427 ballots cast here by delegates to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. The shocker of the evening was that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney placed second, besting far better-known rivals Arizona Sen. John McCain and Virginia Sen. George Allen. Romney finished with 14 percent of the vote. Third place was shared by Allen...

With the 2008 presidential election less than three years away, more than a few members of President Bush's campaign team have begun to migrate to the current GOP frontrunner, Sen. John McCain. According to Newsweek magazine, Mark McKinnon, Bush's longtime media adviser, has told the president he's ready to leap aboard McCain's "Straight Talk Express," unless brother Jeb or Condoleezza Rice change their minds and get into the race. Among Bush fundraisers, the biggest catch, says Newsweek, is Tom Loeffler, a former congressman from San Antonio, who is a Bush-family loyalist and helped build Bush's money machine in 2000. Ron...

With the price of gasoline tumbling 55 cents nationwide in the past few weeks, will congressional vigilantes call off their probes of price gouging in the oil industry? Probably not - cheap populist grandstanding being far more satisfying than recognition of the iron laws of supply and demand. If nothing else, however, the episode serves the useful purpose of alerting Republican voters to the fact that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a leading advocate of energy price probes by both national and state authorities, is not fit to lead a presidential ticket in 2008. If Republicans can't field a candidate...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says a federal investigation into his sale of stock in a family-owned hospital chain will affect his decision on whether he will seek the presidency in 2008. Frist, R-Tenn., said Saturday during a visit to Iowa — site of the nation's first presidential caucuses — that he has not lost the public's trust and wants people to "wait for the facts before passing judgment." Before speaking at the Iowa GOP's annual fundraising dinner, Frist told reporters that his visit does not confirm any presidential aspirations. "I've been to Iowa many times,"...

Robert Novak reports Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "has informed" Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) "that Federal Appeals Court Judge Priscilla Owen will be filibustered if President Bush names her to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. "Republican senators are divided on whether former Texas Supreme Court Justice Owen is vulnerable because she underwent a filibuster for the appellate seat and was confirmed under the compromise agreement. Frist is known to believe Owen can be confirmed in the face of a filibuster. "Republican Senate strategists believe Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the only possible Bush nominee...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was not present at Justice Sunday II, a televised gathering of major religious leaders in his home state to promote the Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr., but he was on everyone's mind. Just over two weeks ago, the prospective presidential candidate alarmed some leaders of the Christian right when he broke ranks with President Bush to announce support of expanded embryonic stem cell research, a stand viewed in many quarters of the antiabortion movement as permitting the taking of a human life. Some religious leaders who spoke here were prepared to...

Scratch Another Republican off the 2008 List By Doug Patton August 1, 2005 On ABC's This Week program, George Will questioned how Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's change of position on the issue of embryonic stem cell research could simultaneously hurt his chances of becoming president and still be politically motivated. Will's contention that both things cannot be true is just plain wrong. Bill Frist, like so many before him, has committed a massive political blunder by mistaking adoration from the Washington media establishment for popularity with voters. Speculation now abounds among the talking heads that Frist is "putting principle...

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By noon last Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist seemed done with John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador. Bustling from the Capitol to have lunch with President Bush, he told reporters he planned no further votes to try to end the Democrats' long-running filibuster of the embattled nominee. But after his presidential chat, Frist announced he would keep trying, prompting newspaper headlines such as "Frist Reverses Himself," which his staff called unfair. The next day, the Tennessee surgeon-turned-politician again seemed to wash his hands of Bolton. "It's really between the White House and Chris Dodd and Joe Biden,"...

WASHINGTON - Some leading conservative activists say they plan to screen 2008 Republican presidential hopefuls, perhaps as early as this fall, in hopes of finding a candidate they can endorse as a group. [snip] Among early contenders vying for the nod of religious and social conservatives are Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and George Allen of Virginia. All have been active, both publicly and behind the scenes, in wooing religious, social and cultural conservatives in advance of the next presidential contest. [snip] Longtime activist Weyrich expressed optimism that the group would agree...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist gave another indication he could be leaning towards a bid for president in 2008 by touring New Hampshire, home to the nation's first electoral primaries. Bloomberg News reports that Frist, Tennessee Republican, along with fellow GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina – Sen. John Kerry's failed running mate last year – have visited New Hampshire already this year, even though the next presidential contest is years away. "For candidates in both parties, the wide-open nature of the 2008 race - with President George W. Bush ineligible to...

IN THESE PARTS, it's never too early to start talking about the next Presidential election. A month after Democrat John Edwards returned to the first-primary state to speak to a party fundraiser, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who is also keeping his options open for 2008, will come to New Hampshire a week from tomorrow. Two weeks later, Frist will arrive in New Hampshire — yet again. Two visits in three weeks? Sounds like an aggressive schedule for early 2005. It just worked out that way, according to Frist spokesman and former New Hampshire newsman Bob Stevenson. Frist agreed...