WP: Frist Issue Adds to GOP's Ethics Troubles (hands Dems a chance)

[DeepModem Mom]

Frist Issue Adds to GOP's Ethics Troubles
Sale of Stock Before Its Price Fell Gives Critics Opening to Target Senate Leadership

By Charles Babington and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 25, 2005; Page A06


Two federal inquiries into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's stock sales have handed Democrats a chance to broaden their long-stated claim that Republicans push ethical boundaries and focus on laws that help the rich, political analysts said yesterday.

Until now, such accusations have centered on the House and White House. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) has been chastised three times by the chamber's ethics committee, and a Texas grand jury recently indicted a political action committee he had organized. The Bush administration's top federal procurement official, David H. Safavian, was arrested last week on charges of obstructing a criminal investigation into lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has close ties to DeLay and other prominent GOP lawmakers.

Now, with the revelation that federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into Frist's sale of hospital stock shortly before its value fell, Democrats are expanding their ethics accusations into the Senate's GOP leadership ranks.

Activists in both parties agree it is much too early to say whether Frist (R-Tenn.) engaged in insider trading, a charge that could cripple his 2008 presidential hopes. But the mere launch of inquiries by the SEC and the Justice Department allows Democrats to claim that both House and Senate majority leaders operate under ethical clouds.

"It is a drip, drip, drip," said former House majority leader Tony Coelho (D-Calif.), who knows the corrosive power of ethics charges. Coelho, who resigned in 1989 following accusations about a loan deal, said, "With DeLay and now Frist, it's a buildup of arrogance of power. . . . With Bush's numbers down, this could be a very negative thing for the Republicans."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401379.html

[Merlot]

1. Let's ask Martha what she thinks!

a charge that could cripple his 2008 presidential hopes

it better put him in jail for a while as well!

[Independent_Liberal]

2. "a charge that could cripple his 2008 presidential hopes"

God, I hope so.

:)

[KC21304]

3. Yes, but when are they going to start using the " S "

word ? We kept hearing about all the Clinton scandals. What about all the Bush scandals, or Republican scandals ?

[Supersedeas]

4. it'll be buried...how many average 'Mericans can explain Abramhoff