Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has some explaining to do about how he came to sell stock in HCA Inc. a month before news of the hospital chain’s disappointing second-quarter earnings sent the stock price into a dive — and from a supposedly blind trust. Two federal inquiries rightly are seeking answers, as are Americans who just saw Martha Stewart do jail time for obstructing justice related to insider trading. This also presents the Republican-controlled Congress with another prime opportunity to show that its oversight of members’ ethics isn’t a joke. Either way, it’s not the sort of news Frist needed his name attached to if he’s serious about running for president.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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19 Comments
“supposedly blind trust” Come on Rhonda, quit making up anti republican stuff without any evidence at all.
Too bad Martha’s out- she could have been Frist’s jailhouse bitch.
Well, gee, JoeC. Had it been a true “blind trust,” he wouldn’t have known what companies were in his portfolio so he couldn’t have sold any stock . . .
Duh.
Joe C,
No evidence that Frist’s trust wasn’t ‘blind’? Nonsense. Here’s a story from AP:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Blind trusts are designed to keep an arm’s-length distance between federal officials and their investments, to avoid conflicts of interest. But documents show that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew quite a bit about his accounts from nearly two dozen letters from the trust administrators.
Frist, R-Tennessee, received regular updates of transfers of assets to his blind trusts and sales of assets. He also was able to initiate a stock sale of a hospital chain founded by his family with perfect timing. Shortly after the sale this summer, the stock price dived.
A possible presidential contender in 2008, Frist now faces dual investigations by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission into his stock sales.
…
Asked in a television interview in January 2003 whether he should sell his HCA stock, responded, “Well, I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust. So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock”
Frist, referring to his trust and those of his family, also said in the interview, “I have no control. It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea.”
Ruh roh . . .
I was reading a timeline of Frist’s stock in HCA. Looking at it from more than just the Martha Stewart connection.It looks like a person could lay a large amount of our health care industries problems at this man’s feet.How could someone who had so much to profit by legislature, be the person who helps to push it through?Why didn’t the ethics committee deal with this conflict of interest in the beginning?The legislature he helped to pass needs to be looked at a 2nd time?
The AP never lies? Bah. Let the inquisition begin. If he is guilty he will be finished in politics. Republicans don’t put up with the crap you democrats do. (i.e. Clinton)
Joe–that’s amusing. Bush’s no-bid contracts, the 9 BILLION dollars they “lost” in Iraq, Brownie as head of FEMA, Medicare unable to negotiate for lower drug prices, Halliburton cleans up in New Orleans.
Yeah, you Republicans are just squeaking clean choirboys . . .
Frist has no chance for the President office. Although he is not seeking re-election for this Senate seat. But I doubt it will be replaced by a Democrat.
Frist inherited millions from HCA. Guess who started HCA? Frist’s father. If there is no conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.
He has every right to own what ever he wants. Placing his investments in a blind trust to shield him and for tax shelters is his own personal business, but insider trading is against the law. I think there should be an investigation.
Although I think there should be an investigation on Galahad too. I think Galahad is Rhonda.
GalahadAll liberal lies except for the no bid contracts. If you want to wait 3 to 6 months you can open the bidding. If you have to have it soon pick the company with the best record for performance.
Hehehe, funny, Joe W.
That would sure surprise my WIFE!
Gee, this is similar to what George W. Bush did in June 1990, when as an outside advisor to Harken Energy, he sold over $800,000 of Harken stock just before the corp announced quarterly losses. The announcement sent the stock into a tale spin. Martha went to jail. Bushspeak.http://slate.msn.com/?id=2067870
Boy, listen to Joe C talk from behind the cognitive dissonance filter. Talk about the closing of the Republican ‘mind’.
As for Republicans not putting up with ‘crap’, oh really, Joe C? I seem to recall a certain President HW Bush pardoning a bunch of folks who had been found guilty of violating Federal laws, as well as a certain Gerald Ford pardoning a certain Richard Nixon.
The only thing worse than being factually challenged is to also be self-righteous. Joe C, in this discussion you don’t have a leg to stand on.
Hehe, right, CF. In fact, one of the people HW pardoned was a terrorist who had hijacked a jet.
Sound familiar? Except this guy was terrorising Cubans and that’s okay because we hate Castro.
Another bizarre pardon, this one by St. Ronnie–
“A more puzzling case is Reagan’s pardon of Robert Wendell Walker, who was convicted for attempted bank robbery. It is unclear why Reagan pardoned Walker, who had been sentenced to five years of probation. The pardon would have remained obscure if not for Walker’s arrest November 3, 2000. He is charged with killing his wife and dismembering her body.”
Do as we say, not as we do. That could be the new Republican motto.
Okay, google search finally kicked in.
Orlando Bosch conspired and successfully carried out a terrorist bombing of a Cubana airliner, killing all passengers and crew.
He was in an American prison for shooting a Polish vessel with a bazooka shell in Miami Harbor.
Columbia wanted to extridite him for his role in the jetliner bombing when H.W. freed him.
“Bush Sr. already botched a similar ethical choice, when he over-ruled the Justice Department as it was prepared to deport one of Posada’s terrorist colleagues, Orlando Bosch, in 1990. At the time, an associate U.S. attorney general, Joe Whitley, called Bosch “a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims.”http://www.ethicsscoreboard.com/list/posada.html
Real nice . . .
We should start one of those urban legends of a dad confronting his eleven year old child.
“Son, why have you packed your sister’s bedroom with dynamite?”
“Well, gee, Dad, I figured if George Bush said it’s all right to blow up an airliner, I could blow up Sissy’s room . . . “
Bill Clinton is a far better man than all you JOEs put together.
Rhonda
If you would dig into the story a little, something a good journalist would normally do, you would find that Frist had discussed selling the stock as far back as April. He spoke with some attorneys about the legalities and ethics about a possible sale. There are legal communications backing this up. While not exonerating Frist of doing anything suspicious it casts a little doubt on the dumping scenario. I really don’t care for Frist, he’s to much the politician for me, but at least get all of the relevant facts out there when discussing the story.
Galahad
When it comes to no-bid contracts you need to do a little investigating yourself. You put to much stock in what the MSM says and not enough stock in what they don’t say. Company by the name of The Shaw Group won a $100 million dollar no-bid contract from FEMA for “housing management and construction”. The Shaw Group CEO is J. Bernhard Jr. the chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Do I hear any outrage over this???? No…..
When contracts like this are given out what people have to realize is this. Whether it was Brown and Root in Iraq, Brown and Root in Louisiana, or The Shaw group in Louisiana there are very few company’s capable of performing tasks like this quickly and efficiently on short notice. The no-bid saves months on the bidding process when getting quick results is more important than getting a low bid. The government keeps a short list of companys with capabilities and experience in dealing with projects like this. Bill Clinton knows something about these things.
So why was Grace Oil Co. told to wait for the bidding process to start and while they waited, Halliburton got the contract in Iraq?
Why are they still handing out no bid contracts in Iraq after some two years?