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Bill Frist

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Bill Frist
Senior Senator, Tennessee
In office
January 1995–Present
Preceded byJim Sasser
Succeeded byIncumbent (2007)
Personal details
Nationalityamerican
Political partyRepublican
SpouseKaryn Frist

William Harrison Frist (born February 22, 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee and a cardiac surgeon. Since 2003, he has served as Senate Majority Leader. He is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Childhood and medical career

Frist is a third-generation Tennessean. His great-great grandfather was one of the founders of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his father was a doctor.

Frist graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) in Nashville, TN and then from Princeton University in 1974, where he specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public affairs. In 1972 he held a summer internship with Tennessee Congressman Joe Evins, who advised Frist that if he wanted to pursue a political career, he should first have a career outside of politics. Frist proceeded to Harvard Medical School, where he received a Doctor of Medicine with honors in 1978.

Frist joined the lab of W. John Powell Jr., M.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1977, where he continued his training in cardiovascular physiology. He left the lab in 1978 to become a resident in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1983 he spent time at Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England as senior registrar in cardiothoracic surgery. He returned to Massachusetts General in 1984 as chief resident and fellow in cardiothoracic surgery. From 1985 until 1986, Frist was senior fellow and chief resident in cardiac transplant service and cardiothoracic surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After completing his fellowship, he became a faculty member at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he began a heart and lung transplantation program. He also became staff surgeon at the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1989, he founded the Vanderbilt Transplant Center.

He is currently licensed as a physician, and is certified in general surgery and heart surgery. He has performed over 150 heart transplants and lung transplants, including pediatric heart transplants and combined heart and lung transplants.

Controversy over medical school experiments

While in medical school, Frist claims he experimented on cats as part of a project researching the use of drugs on the mitral valve, and obtained some of the cats from animal shelters by claiming them as pets. Although Frist's practice had been in the public eye for eleven years, the matter came to light again in a Boston Globe profile published after his election as Senate majority leader. [1] PETA, which opposes all use of animals for science under any circumstances, demanded that Frist atone by sponsoring legislation to protect animals from unnecessary suffering. In response, Frist's office reaffirmed that he denounced the action, but made no promises about any animal protection legislation. [2] Some claim that Frist's actions violated a Massachusetts criminal statute [3] prohibiting cruelty to animals, though, until 1983, the law permitted shelters to release animals for laboratory experiments.[4]

Entering politics

Though he was a public policy major in college, Frist was late to take an interest in politics; he did not vote for the first time until he was 36. In 1990, he met with former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker about the possibilities of public office. Baker advised him to pursue the Senate, and in 1992 suggested that Frist begin preparations for a 1994 campaign. Frist began to build support. He served on Tennessee's Governor's Medicaid Task Force from 1992 to 1993, the Republican National Committee's Health Care Coalition's National Steering Committee, Bush-Quayle '92, and was deputy director of the Tennessee Bush-Quayle '92 campaign. As part of Frist's preparations for political office, in December 1993 he ended his membership in Nashville's all-white Belle Meade Country Club, which he had joined in the 1980s following family tradition.

During his first campaign, Frist repeatedly accused his opponent, incumbent Senator Jim Sasser, of "sending Tennessee money to Washington, to Marion Barry ... While I've been transplanting lungs and hearts to heal Tennesseans, Jim Sasser has been transplanting Tennesseans' wallets to Washington, home of Marion Barry." During that campaign, he also attacked Sasser for his attempt to become Senate Majority Leader, claiming that his opponent would be spending more time taking care of Senate business than Tennessee business. Frist won the election by 13 points, becoming the first physician in the Senate since 1928.

In 2000, Frist easily won reelection with 66 percent of the vote. He was elected by the largest vote total ever received by a candidate for statewide election in the history of Tennessee, although Al Gore won a higher percentage of the vote (70%) in his 1990 Senate re-election.

National prominence

Frist first entered the national spotlight when two Washington police officers were shot outside the United States Capitol. Frist, the closest doctor, provided immediate medical attention. He also was the Congressional spokesman during the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Sen. Frist with Sen. Lamar Alexander and Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

As the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he helped Republicans win back the Senate in the 2002 midterm election. His committee collected $66.4 million in soft money for 2001-2002, 50% more than the previous year. Shortly afterwards, Senator Trent Lott made comments at a Strom Thurmond birthday celebration in which he said that if Thurmond's segregationist presidential bid of 1948 had succeeded, "we wouldn't have all these problems today". In the aftermath, Lott resigned his position as Senate Majority Leader and Frist was chosen by Senate Republicans as his replacement; the administration of George W. Bush was widely credited with helping him attain the post. In his 2005 book, "Herding Cats, A Lifetime in Politics", Lott accuses William Frist of being "one of the main manipulators" in the debate that ended Senator Lott's leadership in the Republican Senate. Lott wrote that Senator Frist's actions amounted to a "personal betrayal." Frist "...didn't even have the courtesy to call and tell me personally that he was going to run." Lott wrote.

On January 2, 2003, while on vacation, Frist happened upon an SUV crash near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Frist stopped his car and helped the victims of the accident until emergency workers arrived. "It made all the difference; his help was invaluable, he really went above and beyond the call to help," emergency workers said.

In the 2003 legislative session, Frist enjoyed many successes. He was able to push many initiatives through to fruition, including the Bush administration's third major tax cut and legislation that was against partial-birth abortion. However, his tactics used to achieve those victories alienated many Democrats. In 2004, by comparison, he saw no major legislative successes, with the explanations ranging from delay tactics by Democrats to lack of unity within the Republican Party.

In a prominent and nationally broadcast speech to the Republican National Convention in August, 2004, Frist highlighted his background as a doctor and focused on several issues related to health care. [[5]] He spoke in favor of the recently passed Medicare prescription drug benefit and the passage of legislation providing for Health Savings Accounts. He described President Bush's policy regarding stem cell research, limiting embryonic stems cells to certain existing lines, as "ethical." In an impassioned argument for medical malpractice tort reform, Frist called personal injury trial lawyers "predators": "We must stop them from twisting American medicine into a litigation lottery where they hit the jackpot and every patient ends up paying."[6] Frist has been a forceful advocate for imposing caps on the amount of money courts can award plaintiffs for noneconomic damages in such cases.

After the 2004 elections, Frist played a role in the controversy over Arlen Specter's post-election remarks. Frist demanded a public statement from Specter in which Specter would repudiate his earlier remarks and pledge support for Bush's judiciary nominees. Frist rejected an early version of the statement as too weak, and gave his approval to the statement which Specter eventually delivered.

Frist is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate for the Republican party in 2008, much in the same tradition as Bob Dole, a previous holder of the Senate Majority Leader position. However, there has been increasing dissent within the Republican caucus over his handling of the Majority Leader position, and his near invisibility as a spokesman for the Republican caucus, which has damaged his reputation. His supporters within the caucus point to his success in moving tax legislation important to the executive branch as a sign that he is simply filling his place on the team, namely to bring important bills to a vote, and then ensure that gains made on the floor are preserved in the conference committee process.

Many of Frist's opponents have attacked him for what they see as pandering to future Republican primary voters. They claim that he has taken extreme positions on social issues such as the Terri Schiavo matter in order to please them. On the other hand, Frist changed his position on stem cell research, contradicting the wishes of the religious right.

There has also been controversy regarding the "nuclear option," under which the Republicans would change a rule in the Senate to prevent the filibuster of judical nominations. Although Frist claimed that "[n]ever before has a minority blocked a judicial nominee that has majority support for an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor," critics pointed to the nearly two century history of the filibuster, including the successful four-day 1968 Republican filibuster of Lyndon Johnson's chief justice nominee Abe Fortas.[7][8]; some Republicans, however, dispute the claim that Fortas enjoyed majority support in the Senate. Other conservatives note that there is nothing unconstitutional about changing rules over the filibuster; for example, until recently, cloture required a two-thirds majority, rather than the three-fifths majority in today's Senate. In 1998 Frist did participate in the Republican filibuster to stall the nomination of openly gay James C. Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg; Hormel eventually received a recess appointment from President Bill Clinton, bypassing a Senate vote.

More criticism of perceived weakness came in the midst of an extended confirmation fight over Bush's pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton. Twice Frist failed to garner the 60 votes to break cloture, getting less votes the second time and even losing one Republican (George Voinovich). On June 21, 2005 Frist said the situation had been "exhausted" and there would be no more votes. Only an hour later, after speaking to the White House, Frist said: "The president made it very clear he wants an up-or-down vote." The sudden switch in attitude led to charges of flip-flopping in response to pressure from the Bush administration.

Frist has pledged to leave the Senate after two terms, which would be in 2006; this would leave him ideally placed to pursue a presidential run in the 2008 presidential election.

Schiavo case

During his tenure as the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Frist watched videotapes that were made and edited by an advocacy group that felt that Florida resident Terri Schiavo should not be disconnected from equipment that sustained her bodily functions.

From this viewing of a videotape, he contradicted the diagnosis of all the attending physicians that Terri Schiavo was brain dead, and said that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." His speech on the floor of the senate: "I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond."[9]

A subsequent autopsy after Ms. Schiavo's death showed long-term and irreversible brain damage that laid to rest any argument that Ms. Schiavo had retained any higher brain function. The autopsy also showed Terri Schiavo to be blind. Subsequently the senator backpedaled, even going so far as to say "I never said 'She responded.'" [10]

A complaint to the Tennessee Bureau of Health Licensure and Regulation regarding Senator Frist's intervention into another attending physician's case was filed. The complaint brought their July 11, 2005 response that Doctor Frist "did not violate the statutes and/or rules governing the practice of medicine in the State of Tennessee". (His statements were made in Washington D.C. about Ms. Schaivo's Florida hospitalization.)

Personal life

Frist has been married to his wife, Karyn, a former flight attendant, since 1982. They have three sons, Harrison, Jonathan, and Bryan. As of 2004, Harrison is a sophomore at Princeton University, and Jonathan and Bryan attend St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.. Senator Frist has refused to answer reporters' questions about the drunk driving arrests of Harrison (21 years old at the time of his arrest, May 2004) and Jonathan (17 years old at the time of his arrest, May 2003). Through a spokesman, Frist called the charges against his sons a "personal matter."[11][12]

The Frist family are members of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C..

Frist has been a pilot since the age of 16. He holds commercial, instrument and multi-engine ratings. He has also run seven marathons and two half-marathons.

In June, 1989, Frist published his first book, Transplant: A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-And-Death Dramas of the New Medicine. With J.H. Helderman, he edited "Grand Rounds in Transplantation" in 1995. In October, 1999, Frist co-authored Tennessee Senators, 1911-2001: Portraits of Leadership in a Century of Change with J. Lee Annis, Jr. In March, 2002, Frist published his third book, When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism from the Senate's Only Doctor. While generally well received, the book later spurred accusations of hypocrisy regarding his remarks about Richard Clarke. When Clarke published his book Against All Enemies in 2004, Frist stated "I am troubled that someone would sell a book, trading on their service as a government insider with access to our nation's most valuable intelligence, in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on September 11, 2001." In response, readers "monkeywrenched" the Amazon.com user reviews of his book; however, they did not know that he did not profit from the book. In December 2003, Frist and coauthor Shirley Wilso released Good People Beget Good People: A Genealogy of the Frist Family, to lukewarm reviews. Frist has also written medical articles.

In 1998 he visited African hospitals and schools with the Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse.

Frist has a $20 million (or more) fortune, most of it made in stock in Hospital Corporation of America, the for-profit hospital chain founded by his brother and father. Frist and his brother's family have been major donors to Princeton University, pledging a reported $25 million in 1997 for the construction the Frist Campus Center. [13] A few years after his 1974 graduation, "I made a commitment to myself that if I was ever in a position to help pull together the resources to establish a center [on the Princeton campus] where there could be an informal exchange of ideas, and to establish an environment that is conducive to the casual exchange of information, I would do so." [14]

Hospital Corporation of America was the subject of a decade-long Federal investigation into double-bookkeeping and suspected criminal fraud involving the bilking of Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare (the federal program covering the military and their families). HCA has paid a total of $1.7 billion in fines, the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history. Shortly after Frist assumed his Senate Majority position, a final fine of $631 million was assessed and the ongoing Justice Department investigation into HCA was dropped. Rick Scott, who had been hired to run the company after Frist's brother's retirement, quickly left the company. Frist's brother, a billionaire, returned to HCA to get the company back on track; in addition, HCA was allowed to continue its Medicare contracts.[15][16] There is no evidence that there was anything improper about these Justice Department decisions.

On September 21, 2005; the Washington Post and Business Week reported that Frist sold his HCA shares two weeks before disappointing earnings sent the stock down by 15 percent. A spokeswoman said that Frist told the trustee who managed his HCA shares to sell them on June 13, and Frist had no control over the exact date when they were sold. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has issued subpoenas to investigate the sale.

Ideology and issues

Frist's primary legislative focus has been on issues of concern to the health care industry. He opposes guarantees that health care be provided to all Americans, favoring instead free markets for health care services. The senator also opposes abortion. In the Senate, he led the fight against intact dilation and extraction (also known as partial-birth abortion). He voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003, voted against an amendment to include a women's health exception (as he considered the procedure to be hazardous to a women's health), and is opposed to all federal funding of abortion. [17] Despite this, Frist retains a large personal stock holding in the Frist family's for-profit hospital chain (Hospital Corporation of America), which provides abortions. At least one pro-life mutual fund refuses to invest in HCA because of its abortion services. [18][19] Frist supports a total ban on human cloning, even for purposes of stem cell research. He supports programs to fight AIDS and African poverty. He travels to Africa frequently to provide medical care.

Since 2001, Frist had stood beside President Bush in his insistence that only currently existing lines be used for stem cell research. But in July 2005, Frist reversed course and endorsed a House-passed plan to expand federal funding of the research, saying "it's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science." Up to that point the legislation had been considered bottled up in the Senate. The decision quickly drew criticism from social conservatives such as James Dobson, but garnered praise from Democrats and former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

During an interview on December 5, 2004, Frist, who is a supporter of abstinence-only education, was asked about a government-funded abstinence education program that stated AIDS could be transmitted by sweat and tears. Despite there being no medical evidence to support such a statement, Frist responded: "I don't know. You can get the virus in tears and sweat. But in terms of infecting somebody, it would be very hard."

On education, Frist supports the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, which passed in 2001 with bipartisan support. In August 2005 he announced his support for teaching of intelligent design.

Campaign finance

From 1997 to 2002, Frist's primary donors were health professionals ($600,000) and employees of money-management companies ($265,000), Federal Express ($30,000), Vanderbilt University ($30,000), Powell Construction ($25,000), and HCA ($25,000).

In December 2004 Frist's campaign account reported being $524,000 in debt due to losses in the stock market.

Preceded by U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Tennessee
1995- 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by Senate Majority Leader
2003- 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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