Senate Majority Leader and symptomatically-corrupt Republican Bill Frist recently had his O.J. Simpson moment on live TV. He emphatically declared his innocence in an almost certainly illegal sale of shares in HCA, slightly before a disappointing earnings report caused HCA stock to tank.
He claimed he sold the stock to avoid the appearance of conflict, but he also claimed to know nothing about the assets held in his trust, only to have it later revealed he was briefed 24 times about the assets held in his trust.
HCA, a corporation in which Majority Leader Frist is a major shareholder and founded by his father and brother is also a company that performs for-profit, abortion-on-demand for hypocritical Republicans that always fail to practice what they preach.
After declaring he had done nothing wrong in a lengthy and incomprehensible tirade, he said he would now take questions from the media. He then proceeded to walk off the stage just as the first reporter could ask a question.
Frist's effort to stifle criticism of his stock transactions came as SEC Chairman Christopher Cox removed himself from the agency's investigation, saying he wanted to avert "any appearance of impropriety." It has now become less likely that a corrupt Republican loyalist will, stonewall, cover-up-for, or whitewash the case of another criminally implicated conservative.
Time to pull Dr. Frist's feeding tube.
He is in a vegitative state both ethically and politically. The only real questions that remain are how much longer it will be before the truths about this potential crime are revealed and how much longer Americans are going to tolerate the conservative culture of corruption. Greed and criminality masquerading as conservative politicians will continue until voters express their outrage at the ballot box. Until then, the interests of Halliburton, Enron, and HCA will remain vastly more important than the interests of the average American.
Balletshooz blogs at Alphaliberal.com
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Nancy
Typical of the current crop of neocon publicans in congress: blatantly, unapologetically corrupt, cronyist, hypocritical liars, con men, & thieves. There IS going to be an investigation? You didn't say.
2 - balletshooz
An investigation is underway. The head of the SEC and friend of Frist just recused himself.
3 - Vox Populi
>>slightly before a disappointing earnings report caused HCA stock to tank.<<
I'm sorry, when exactly did HCA stock 'tank'. The stock is up 35% in the last 6 months. It had a tiny dip in June after the earnings report, and has been steadily and gradually up since then. It's up 1.5% today alone. It's still ranked a 'buy' or 'outperform' by most of the major analysts, in fact 3 upgraded it during the same period where it supposedly 'tanked'. It's also expected to pay a good dividend tomorrow.
This supposed sell-off by Frist and company insiders took place from January to June of this year. The stock didn't peak until late July. Any stock sold prior to June sold for less than the stock is selling for right now.
If some insider advised Frist to sell his stock it was pretty bad advice. Watch the market. HCA will be trading at over $55 (its high for the year) before Christmas.
Sorry, this story and this whole manufactured controversy is just dumb.
Vox
4 - Nancy
If it's "manufactured", then why is Frist's buddy recusing himself?
5 - Vox Populi
Because he "wanted to avoid any appearance of impropriety". Recusal has to do with him knowing Frist, not anything Frist did. And I'm not saying Frist wasn't involved in insider trading, just that it was a dumb trade. If you're going to violate SEC rules you ought to at least make some money doing it.
Vox
6 - Bob A. Booey
I don't think this will stick and cause him huge damage politically, but this is not a good news blurb for someone who so desperately wants to be President and shows he might not have the deft touch needed to manage his image through a long campaign. He's going to have to talk about corporate responsibility to shareholders and the public and accusations of insider trading will severely undermine his credibility on corporate malfeasance issues.
That is all.
7 - Vox Populi
The question on Frist is really whether he's better or worse than the competition in the Republican party. Personally I don't think he's qualified and I don't like the shape of his head. He looks more like Frankenstein's monster than Kerry did.
Vox
8 - Bob A. Booey
That's not funny.
And of course he's qualified. He has a resume most politicians would dream of.
Who would a Vox Populi support for the GOP nomination? Because we all really want to know.
[edited]
That is all.
9 - Dave Nalle
More personal attacks, Babs? It's getting to be an unattractive pattern.
Dave
10 - Anthony Grande
"the same company that performs abortion-on-demand for hypocritical Republicans that always fail to practice what they preach."
I need proof of this
11 - Dave Nalle
I own stock in HCA and they run my hospital of choice when I need emergency room service. They perform abortions in their hospitals. No question about it, Anthony.
Dave
12 - Bob A. Booey
What are you talking about, Dave? What have I said that's a personal attack? I didn't find what he said funny nor do I appreciate anything else I've read from him.
Vox Populi went out of his way to annoy me and I responded with truth. I even took his silly statement seriously and give it a serious answer.
That is all.
13 - Bob A. Booey
Maybe I should take a page from you and go around calling everyone an "idiot," as I've seen you do a lot lately.
I think you called me an "arrogant twit," which is endearingly insecure but wasn't quite cute enough to get me to play the insult game.
That is all.
14 - Dave Nalle
Babs, as far as I can tell Vox said not one word to you on this thread and you belittled and mocked him for no apparent reason.
I'd also be interested to see where I've called anyone an 'idiot' recently.
Dave
15 - Bob A. Booey
Not here, elsewhere.
And I've definitely seen you use "idiot" very recently, but I'm not willing to search through your endless comment search results.
I didn't belittle and mock him and your abuse of your editor powers to prove a point is really silly. For those who weren't aware what was edited, it wasn't anything vulgar or offensive. I told Vox Populi to stop writing because I didn't think he was smart or liked.
You've said much worse than that to me and others on a daily basis, Dave.
"Arrogant twit" out.
That is all.
16 - Dave Nalle
Woah, wait a sec with the accusations there, Babs. I didn't edit a word on this thread, and every post here looks exactly as it was when I first saw it. Unless requested I don't edit comments for content and never have. I only copy edit articles and fix errors unless someone requests something specifically. I certainly don't edit threads I'm involved in.
>>I told Vox Populi to stop writing because I didn't think he was smart or liked.<<
And that's not belittling?
Ok, if you say so, but I bet most people would be insulted.
Dave
17 - bhw
For the record, I edited the comment, not Dave.
18 - Bob A. Booey
For what reason, BHW? That's silly and you know it.
Vox Populi is trying to provoke and annoy from what little I've seen of him, Dave.
And I take back the editing comment towards Dave -- Sorry, I assumed it was you. I do think the only reason the comment was edited by BHW was because of your objection, but whatever.
Yay censorship. I couldn't really care less, but this whole comment policy has become really ambiguous and arbitrary.
That is all.
19 - Dave Nalle
You should have realized I didn't edit it since I commented on it and then some hours went by before someone came along and edited it.
And for the record, I'm not totally sold on the comment policy, which is why I don't edit comments for content. I seem to spend most of my time deleting spam.
Dave
20 - Bob A. Booey
OK, I like you Dave Nalle, even though we seem destined to butt heads for some reason :)
That is all.
21 - bhw
Booey, the policy [recently updated, if you haven't read it in the past two weeks or so] isn't so much ambiguous as it is very difficult to keep up with, which makes it sometimes seem unevenly applied. Personal attacks are our primary focus with the comment policy, and they're plentiful, so we do our best to keep up with them.
22 - Bob A. Booey
I have read it since it was updated and it's unevenly applied because it's now entirely subjective.
And what I said wasn't a personal attack. It said nothing about the person, just my reaction to them, and didn't attack anything about them. So it was neither personal NOR an attack.
I'm not going to belabor the point because it seems like everyone gets occasionally edited for some reason, but it all seems really random and arbitrary lately.
So do me a favor: if anyone ever throws what you think is a personal attack at me, DO NOT edit or censor them as a favor to me. I really, really mean it. I'm not asking you to apply that standard to what I write. I'm asking you to keep their comments intact and not protect my delicate, sensitive feelings because free, open expression is more important to me than nice, pretty speech scrubbed clean of anything frank.
I remember that we had some good conversations before and I like you, BHW, but do me and everyone else a favor and err on the side of NOT censoring if you can, please? Thank you.
That is all.
23 - RogerMDillion
"I need proof of this"
This coming from a guy you never offers proof. If this was someone pretending to be Ag, that's hysterical.
24 - Shark
BTW, Booey, *Bill Fristenstein is funny -- only because I pointed out the similarity between he and the original monster months ago -- way before Vox Poopuli decided to up his humor quotient and "borrow" part of my act.
*©2005 by Shark
25 - Nancy
hmmm...someone sure is taking Frist's possible malfeasance seriously: a bipartisan committee - 2 pubs, 2 dems - have issued subpoenas for telephone records, etc. etc. Even if the charges don't stick & he manages to weasel out of them, I think ol' Bill's chances of getting nominated or running for the WH just tanked. The GOP doesn't like to gamble, even on long odds. Bye bye, Bill.