September 23, 2005 [LINK]
Can Frist weather the storm?
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is being investigated after selling shares of the HCA hospital chain one month before its price plummeted. We'll have to watch this one very closely to see whether the charges are trumped up. See Washington Post. I initially thought Frist was a good replacement for Trent Lott (see Dec. 23, 2002), but some of his recent policy statements have made me wonder about his judgment. First Tom DeLay, then Karl Rove, now this. As Daily Kos puts it, "The trifecta is complete. The Republican leadership in the Senate, House and White House are ALL officially under investigation." (Is he actually trumpeting the politicization of criminal investigations of the sort that have gone on in Texas?) DeLay recently boasted of the fiscal record of the House of Representatives, which was either foolishly naive or (more likely) breathtakingly cynical. As for Rove, I sure hope reports that he is taking a lead role in the Hurricane Katrina recovery operations prove false. Speaking of which, Frist may be hoping that Hurricane Rita diverts attention from the storm clouds he is facing...