Frist Sri Lanka photo op -- this guy's a piece of work...

[gcole]

Just before his helicopter lifted off, Frist and aides took snapshots of each other near a pile of tsunami debris.

"Get some devastation in the back," Frist told a photographer.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/06/world/main665329.shtml

[MyDogSpot]

1. The reason Frist was sent there, according to the media,

is because he's supposed to be a doctor. Rather than having debris behind him, you'd think he'd want his picture taken next to one of his patients.

[Nikepallas]

2. Yeah I heard about that. All I can say is that Karma will bite him oneday

[classof56]

4. Dare I say it?

At least he wasn't out trolling for cats to kill. Or maybe he was and they just didn't film him doing it.

I'm so sick of these people I just can't find the words to express my disgust. Let's hope you're right about the Karma thing. And let's hope it happens soon!

Tired Old Cynic

[classof56]

3. I keep saying it...the inmates are now officially in charge of the asylum.

Welcome DU--glad to have you with us.

Tired Old Cynic

[GreenArrow]

5. he's a piece of sumpthin',

alright...

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Frist claimed he wanted to "go and help tsunami victims as a dr..."

...yet stayed only 2-3 days. And Jeb was going to lend his expertise on disaster management, yet hotfooted it out after only 2 days for a family portrait in DC.

Speechless by this gang, as usual...:wow:

[JAK1941]

11. These guys just make me ill - puking ill.

:puke:

[NJCher]

7. that story is full of goodies

Besides Frist using the devastation for his own political ends:

a) we find the U.S. is not playing well with others...(again):

The U.N. official coordinating relief efforts on Sumatra island complained Thursday that the U.S. military's aid mission was failing to coordinate and provide critical information to other relief organizations struggling to help survivors of the tsunami.

b) looks like the UN is wise to bush's promises of aid:

The United Nations has warned some of the promises might not be honored, as has happened in the past.

c) oh, and our wonderful humanitarian work in bringing "democracy" to Iraq has spun off some unintended consequences:

...some radical Islamic groups are sending men into Aceh - perhaps to stir up sentiment against U.S. and Australian troops there, a terrorism expert said.


Cher

[babylonsister]

8. And isn't Frist going to be on MTP today

to 'share his experience' while in the tsunami-torn zone? Such a blatant attempt at self-promotion, makes me want to :puke: Had he stayed and helped in any way, now that might be newsworthy. Also noticed it took him about 10 days to getting around to getting over there. Guess he didn't want Jeb, Colin, or even Kerry to get too much attention. Again, I say :puke:

[Clark2008]

19. Frist is the anti-Christ

eom

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. None of those publicity hounds should be there at all,

unless they can actually do some tangible good, right now, which they don't. All they do is tie up resources while they stage their photo-ops for their constituents' consumption. They should stay the hell out of there and let the real aid workers do their jobs.

[spanone]

10. This jerk is my senator and a constant source of embarrasment.

He brags that he didn't VOTE till he was thirty seven (Hey dickhead, don't tell anyone). He has no opinion of his own, he can only give lip service to the bushists. His family owns Hospital Corporation of America. This corporation has been heavily fined for defrauding medicare, yet he votes on legislature that will profit his pocket and those of his family.

[asjr]

13. One of my senators also. I wonder how deep Alexander is

in with the bushits. I used to admire him. If he can be independent enough, maybe he can really be of use.

[Clark2008]

20. So, there are three Tennesseans here

I, for one, wouldn't have spit on Alexander if he was on fire after he treated the students at UT as nothing more than a stepping stone.

And Frist? Frist should be ridden out of the state on a rail.

[joeybee12]

12. Welcome, and thanks for the posting this

God, just when I think these scum can't go any lower....

[pansypoo53219]

14. when

assholes beget pricks.

[HeeBGBz]

15. This part caught my eye, too.

"Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a medical doctor and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, visited tsunami-stricken southern Sri Lanka on Thursday, tying up two of the five U.S. Military helicopters presently available, reports CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey."

Not only is he not doing anything, he's hindering the people who are actually there to save people.

[flordehinojos]

16. It is amazing how Power and Greed have made a man who onceupon a time I

thought of as handsome, look totally UGLY.

[liberalpragmatist]

17. It's amazing how power and greed can so thoroughly CORRUPT a man

I actually have some respect for Bill Frist. He truly was a good doctor (although his family's connections with the health insurance industry are less noble) and whatever you can say about him he's not Bush in that he's not stupid. He's very smart.

But he has completely betrayed everything he once believed in. As a scientist, as a doctor, he was to believe in empiricism, truth, justice, and compassion. I remember the NYT Magazine profile of him said that he was never very political and most of his friends in the medical community assumed he was a democrat (he'd clearly been pro-choice according to his friends, and at times expressed admiration for Canadian single-payer coverage). But he has clearly abandoned
ALL of that for power. It's NOT even the fact that he may have switched positions on the issues and political philosophy - that may have been a genuine conversion and it's not my right to say b/c I don't know him personally. But to completely abandon empiricism and to sell out to the powers-that-be with such nauseating moments such as his saying that maybe you COULD get AIDS from spit shows that he has completly abandoned any moral principles he once had for the cheap thrill of power.

*ON EDIT: Wanted to clarify something. I can't hold the fact that Frist may have changed political philosophy over time against him. If it happens because of principled reasons that's their right - we embrace figures like Hillary Clinton (for the most part) who did the same thing from the other side and I take Ronald Reagan's conversion seriously.

My point about Frist is that it goes beyond a mere change in political philosophy. It's clear that even if there's some underlying principled conversion in there he's selling out for power in his blind support for corporate policies and his engaging in craven political hackery (thankfully for us, he's quite clumsy in doing so) - case in point: he criticized Kerry's health care plan for having the government adopt a reinsurance policy for catastrophic claims even though Frist had suggested EXACTLY THE SAME THING! And while as a doctor he saved many lives, he's abandoned that principled support for compassion and social justice in the way that he has refused to be the empiricist that he was trained to be and that he probably still is deep, deep down.

There's nothing remotely admirable about that. It just goes to show how the pursuit of power can corrupt.

[flordehinojos]

18. thank you for this enlightening post on frist...perhaps what now comes

through as UGLY for me is merely the despoils of whatever is left of him.