AJC: FEC Questions Frist's Finances.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

ajc.com > nation/world
Frist's finances questioned
> Experts see violation of campaign rules

> By BOB KEMPER [e-mail] and TOM BAXTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
> Published on: 06/12/05

Washington — Election Day 2000 was five months off, but Bill Frist was already in an enviable position. With a fat campaign war chest and only token opposition in what he had decided was his last race for the U.S. Senate, Frist could turn his attention to grander plans.


Frist began focusing on raising record amounts of cash for other Republicans. But while he was picking up political IOUs that could aid him greatly in a run for president in 2008, his own campaign finances took a sharp, and in some ways baffling, turn for the worse.



Hundreds of thousands of dollars Frist's supporters had given him to run for the Senate were dwindling at a rapid rate. Much of that money was lost in a stock market investment that experts say was out of line with the way candidates traditionally invest campaign funds. Frist's campaign also took on more than $1 million in debt so that it could repay Frist for interest-free loans he made to his campaign six years earlier.


And then, in a decision experts say violated federal campaign regulations, Frist filed reports with the Federal Elections Commission that made it difficult for his contributors and political foes to determine just how bad off his campaign finances were.

http://tinyurl.com/7srt9

[gademocrat7]

1. My hometown paper

One truth published the DSM to go!

[acmavm]

2. You mean...

Dr. I-can-tell-from-the-video-tape-she's-not-braindead is a dishonest lying crook as well?

I'm friggin' shocked. Shocked I tell ya.

RE: The weird formatting. I kept getting an error message and couldn't post because of the lack of spaces in Dr. I-can-tell etc. Isn't that odd?

[Mel]

3. Bwah! haa! haa!

Last paragraph:

<snip>"Those of us who are opposed to private accounts for Social Security have kind of chuckled at the notion of the majority leader not being able to make any headway with his investments," said Daschle, the former Senate majority leader whom Frist spent $226,000 through VolPAC to defeat last year. "If he's having trouble, how do they expect an 82-year-old woman like my mother to be able to do it?"</snip>

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Daschle makes an excellent point

I hope Dems of the House and Senate use it to educate people.

[Straight Shooter]

4. Hurry up and bite the dust, Frist.

This man who cannot even monitor his senatorial campaign finances wants to run for president? Ha!

Some poor schmuck is going to be blamed for this, you just know it. It's the Republican way. Remember how they made such a big deal over Dean's money? At least he could account for where it all went.

[leesa]

34. Well, Bush tanked every business he owned and got there.

The GOP media will simply tell the Sheeple he's brilliant at business. My Republican office mate STILL thinks Bush has a brilliant business past, because he was told so by his teevee.

[Roland99]

5. I'm loving watching them all spontaneously combust!

These fucking hypocrites! Burn! Burn 'em all!!

[leesa]

6. Oh goodie! I'd love to see the Kat Killer get mired in his own filth!

[candy331]

7. Damn, the whole bunch of those apples are just plain rotten to the

core. Drip, drip, drip, faster, faster, faster, seems to be a running stream, every day seems another one is mired in dirt.

[AlGore-08.com]

9. Oh, dear! How will Fristy every survive the coming wrist slap?

The FEC may even use... THE COMFY CHAIR!

[Roland99]

10. HA! Great pic!

[owillis]

11. Frist's finances questioned; Experts see violation of campaign rules

http://ajc.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Frist%27s+finances+questioned&expire=&urlID=14521810&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ajc.com%2Fnews%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fstories%2F0605%2F12frist.html&partnerID=552

Frist's finances questioned; Experts see violation of campaign rules

Hundreds of thousands of dollars Frist's supporters had given him to run for the Senate were dwindling at a rapid rate. Much of that money was lost in a stock market investment that experts say was out of line with the way candidates traditionally invest campaign funds. Frist's campaign also took on more than $1 million in debt so that it could repay Frist for interest-free loans he made to his campaign six years earlier.

And then, in a decision experts say violated federal campaign regulations, Frist filed reports with the Federal Elections Commission that made it difficult for his contributors and political foes to determine just how bad off his campaign finances were.

Frist's aides, who have given contradictory responses to questions about Frist's finances, deny any wrongdoing. They said Frist, now Senate majority leader, acted within the law and in line with long-accepted campaign practices.

"There's nothing mismanaged about the funds," said Linus Catignani, Frist's longtime finance director.

Through his office, Frist declined several interview requests made over the past two weeks.

The Frist campaign's reversal of fortunes, traced through bank documents and often incomplete and inaccurate campaign disclosure forms, centers on three key decisions Frist made in 2000 that ultimately drained away much of the money entrusted to him by his supporters.

The situation raises the question of whether Frist, the scion of a wealthy Nashville family and one of the South's premier heart-lung transplant surgeons, was cavalier with other people's money while protecting his own.

[Catshrink]

12. drip, drip, drip

[Erika]

13. Frist is no better than DeLay

Use and abuse voters.

[merwin]

24. They will be sure to point fingers over this one and say that they

had absolutely nothing to do with it. Yup. Nothing.

[nashville_brook]

14. this is big -- timing couldn't be bettet

[Catshrink]

15. The '06 elections are coming.....

and the corruption and lies are building into a deafening crescendo. I hope the sheeple are listening.

[pennylane100]

17. I have given up any hope that anyone will ever care.

It seems that no matter how outrageous the republicans behave, the mainstream media will be too busy waiting for the Jackson verdict, Howard Dean's latest press statement and all the other non-news stories to pay attention to any real news.

[NJCher]

21. people have quit watching the so-called mainstream news

The Downing Street Web sites are getting a million hits in a day. The television ratings show people are abandoning in droves.


Cher

[Prodemsouth]

20. Timing couldn't be better for Bush or the whores who will make

this a distraction from DSM and the misleading us into war by Bush. There must be some kind of shit around this DSM for Frist to be used as the lamb of sacrifice ( a little religious right lingo for you)

[aquart]

23. How did this info get out??

When did this investigation start? Who knew about it? Why is it public now?

[Carolab]

16. Gotta love the last paragraph.

Frist's management of his campaign funds has already given Democrats ammunition to attack his presidential qualifications as well as Republican initiatives that encourage Americans to invest in the stock market to pay for their retirement, education and health care.

"Those of us who are opposed to private accounts for Social Security have kind of chuckled at the notion of the majority leader not being able to make any headway with his investments," said Daschle, the former Senate majority leader whom Frist spent $226,000 through VolPAC to defeat last year. "If he's having trouble, how do they expect an 82-year-old woman like my mother to be able to do it?"

[slor]

27. I am soooo glad...

that Daschle made that connection. And I hope the people hear it!

[expatriot]

18. recommended.... let's get this story out to all...

[Catshrink]

19. Good idea!

It's up on the greatest page now!

[roguevalley]

22. May I say: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAAHA!

[0007]

25. We're dealing with organize crime charactors......

How did we get Al Capone?

[LightningFlash]

26. You christo-right-wing fanatic Frist....

This is what you deserve.....You should get up and resign. :mad: :mad: :mad: :banghead: :banghead:

[Racenut20]

28. Senator HMO "PRIVATIZED" their contributions. hehehehhe

[Toby109]

29. Some good news

This is covered in this Sunday's AJC, front page, above the fold. They have also been hammering away at Ralph Reed over his gambling money connections.

Finally.

[gademocrat7]

30. I am glad the AJC is covering these

rethugs misdeeds. Just wish we could get some DSM articles.

[gademocrat7]

33. AJC does have an article on DSM

here's a link ;
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/news_24ba7e8a070c62d000c8.html

[susu369]

31. But "the scion of a wealthy Nashville family"

had such high hopes of being prezident one day. Love the irony.

:nopity:

[ozymandius]

37. kicking

:kick:

[DeepModem Mom]

32. How I'd love to see this pompous airhead go down! nt

[SF Bay Area Dem]

35. Sounds to me like the Repuke Fundies are pushing him in front of the bus!

... Frisk did not give the religious nuts (not to be confused with true honest to goodness tolerant Christians) Armageddon and now they are making him pay. Frisk will never be president and is now mortally wounded.

Buh bye Frisk! You found out the hard way why you should not be a President Rove/Bush puppet lapdog!

[MGKrebs]

36. Looks like Tom Baxter's email got cut off in the OP, so here it is

(in case anyone would would like to comment to him):

[e-mail]

Mr. Baxter does a pretty good job of covering the local political scene here through his "Political Insider" column, with Jim Galloway.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/insider/index.html

I don't know anything about Kemper.