Retiring Senate Majority Leader Frist Will Not Seek Republican Presidential Nomination In 2008
December 5, 2006 – 1:27 pm | posted in MedicareSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who will retire in January 2007, on Wednesday announced that he will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and will take a “sabbatical” from politics to focus on work related to health care, the New York Times reports (Zernike, New York Times, 11/30). According to several sources, Frist made the decision because he had “come to the conclusion that he would have faced a formidable challenge in gaining the nomination, with little assurance of success,” the AP/Washington Times reports (AP/Washington Times, 11/30). As Senate majority leader, Frist had a significant role in the passage of the 2003 Medicare law and other legislation supported by President Bush (USA Today, 11/30). Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon, has received criticism from moderates for his role in congressional efforts last year to maintain life support for Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state, according to the New York Times. Frist said that he viewed a videotape of Schiavo and that he believed she did not have irreversible brain damage, contrary to the diagnosis of her physicians and the results of a later autopsy. He also has received criticism from conservatives for his support of legislation that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research (New York Times, 11/30). In addition, Frist faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of insider trading related to the sale of his shares of HCA, a hospital chain founded by his family (AP/Washington Times, 11/30). Comments
Frist spokesperson Amy Call, said, “He in his heart knew that if he did this he’d have to spend a year and a half on a campaign. He wanted to get back to something more basic.” Frist in a statement said that he will return to his “professional roots as a healer” and focus his “creative energies on innovative solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges Americans face.” He added, “In the short term, I will resume my regular medical mission trips as a doctor around the world to serve those in poverty, in famine and in civil war. I will continue to be a strong voice to fix what is broken in our health care system and to address the issues of clean water and public health globally” (New York Times, 11/30).
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