Nbadan
09-25-2005, 04:52 AM
Senate Majority Leader allegedly disobeyed blind trust rules
Updated: 11:44 p.m. ET Sept. 24, 2005
WASHINGTON - 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-Tenn., 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.
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9469609)
More:
Two federal inquiries into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's stock sales have handed Democrats a chance to broaden their long-stated claim that Republicans push ethical boundaries and focus on laws that help the rich, political analysts said yesterday.
Until now, such accusations have centered on the House and White House. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) has been chastised three times by the chamber's ethics committee, and a Texas grand jury recently indicted a political action committee he had organized. The Bush administration's top federal procurement official, David H. Safavian, was arrested last week on charges of obstructing a criminal investigation into lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has close ties to DeLay and other prominent GOP lawmakers.
<snip>
"It is a drip, drip, drip," said former House majority leader Tony Coelho (D-Calif.), who knows the corrosive power of ethics charges. Coelho, who resigned in 1989 following accusations about a loan deal, said, "With DeLay and now Frist, it's a buildup of arrogance of power. . . . With Bush's numbers down, this could be a very negative thing for the Republicans."
Democratic consultant Jenny Backus said many Americans already think "things are rotten" in the capital's Republican-dominated political circles. "To have the Senate majority leader under an ethics cloud is going to drive this point home for the voters," she said.
<snip>
Frist, asked in a January 2003 TV interview whether he should sell his HCA stock, replied that his assets were in a blind trust and, "as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." Referring to his trust and those of his family, he added: "It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea."
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401379.html)
You can go ahead and call this the torpedo Frist for Jeb move. Frist isn't too well liked by the Fundies for his view on stem cell research and negotiating with Democrats over Judges, and since Frist isn't running for re-election for his Senate seat, the Fundies figure this is a good time to dump Frist altogether. Dumb bastard probably won't ever know what hit him either.
Updated: 11:44 p.m. ET Sept. 24, 2005
WASHINGTON - 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-Tenn., 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.
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9469609)
More:
Two federal inquiries into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's stock sales have handed Democrats a chance to broaden their long-stated claim that Republicans push ethical boundaries and focus on laws that help the rich, political analysts said yesterday.
Until now, such accusations have centered on the House and White House. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) has been chastised three times by the chamber's ethics committee, and a Texas grand jury recently indicted a political action committee he had organized. The Bush administration's top federal procurement official, David H. Safavian, was arrested last week on charges of obstructing a criminal investigation into lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has close ties to DeLay and other prominent GOP lawmakers.
<snip>
"It is a drip, drip, drip," said former House majority leader Tony Coelho (D-Calif.), who knows the corrosive power of ethics charges. Coelho, who resigned in 1989 following accusations about a loan deal, said, "With DeLay and now Frist, it's a buildup of arrogance of power. . . . With Bush's numbers down, this could be a very negative thing for the Republicans."
Democratic consultant Jenny Backus said many Americans already think "things are rotten" in the capital's Republican-dominated political circles. "To have the Senate majority leader under an ethics cloud is going to drive this point home for the voters," she said.
<snip>
Frist, asked in a January 2003 TV interview whether he should sell his HCA stock, replied that his assets were in a blind trust and, "as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." Referring to his trust and those of his family, he added: "It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea."
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401379.html)
You can go ahead and call this the torpedo Frist for Jeb move. Frist isn't too well liked by the Fundies for his view on stem cell research and negotiating with Democrats over Judges, and since Frist isn't running for re-election for his Senate seat, the Fundies figure this is a good time to dump Frist altogether. Dumb bastard probably won't ever know what hit him either.