Cat Killer Frist "Recieved Many" (24) Updates From Trustee on Blind Trust

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 24, 5:33 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050924/ap_on_go_co/frist_blind_trust

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.

Sheldon Cohen, who was the trustee for Democrat Walter Mondale's blind trust when he was vice president, and drafted Democrat Lyndon Johnson's blind trust for Johnson's presidency, said that in the executive branch,"You don't tell them how it's composed." He said Frist, like any federal official, "absolves himself of conflict by not knowing what he owns." Cohen said that when Mondale left office, he told Cohen to sell his assets. "He had no idea what I was holding," the Washington attorney and former Internal Revenue Service commissioner said.

Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said the senator received approval from the Senate Ethics Committee before he initiated the stock sale. All the information Frist received complied with federal law and Senate ethics rules, Stevenson added.

[benburch]

1. We can destroy Frist's Presidential chances with this story.

It is essential that we adopt the right spin;

"Frist has done the same thing Martha Stewart did that put her in jail, only he did it on the taxpayer's dime."

[MADem]

2. WOW!!! WOW!!! He's in hot water, how WONDERFUL

Trent Lott has got to be grinning from ear to ear.

Greed, it is all about greed. The dumbshit should have put some "plausible deniability" between himself and his stock, like say, arranging for a relative to get those updates. But NO, hubris reigned, and he had to get them himself. What a putz...and this clown made it through med school??? I thought you needed a brain to be a doctor...

This part made ME smile:
Whether Frist knew too much about his investments, or took advantage of insider trading, is not known. But the potential political damage increased in recent days.

Frist also knows first hand how a Senate leader's career can suddenly roll downhill. His predecessor, Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., lost his leadership post after praising the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's segregationist campaign for the presidency in 1948.

Documents on file with the Senate show the trustees for Frist and his immediate family wrote the senator nearly two dozen times between 2001 and July 2005.

The documents list assets going into the account and assets sold. Some assets have a dollar range of the investment's value and some list the number of shares.

[acmejack]

3. Couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

Billy "Holier than thou" Frist.

Lets see if he can weasel out of this, it will say a lot about our system if he can.

[ashling]

4. Frist's "Blind Trust":

he trusted that the media would be blind to what he was up to.

[texpatriot2004]

5. Put Frist in Prison just like Martha. n/t