And the wheel of Republican corruption never stops spinning. One can only wonder who's next?
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been subpoenaed to turn over personal records and documents as federal authorities step up a probe of his July sales of HCA Inc. stock, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued the subpoena within the past two weeks, after initial reports that Frist, the Senate's top Republican official, was under scrutiny by the agency and the Justice Department for possible violations of insider trading laws.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the investigation, said Frist is expected to testify under oath about what he knew about the company's health in the weeks before he sold stock.
Critics yesterday seized on a report that Frist held a substantial amount of his family's hospital stock outside of blind trusts between 1998 and 2002 -- a time when he asserted he did not know how much of the stock he owned
"It seems that for years, Frist may have misled his constituents and the American people about his health care industry stock holdings and the conflict of interest they created as he drafted our nation's health care policy," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. . .
Republican ethics lawyer Jan W. Baran also scored Frist for his handling of his trusts. "This shows Senator Frist's capacity for clumsiness and bad timing," Baran said.
Yeah, not only are Republicans crooks, they are clumsy and incompetent crooks.
Hat tip to Political Animal
UPDATE: Frist has a blog. Some of the posts are signed: Written by Bill Frist, M.D. Comments are moderated and appear to be written by Republican fans (who may or may not be on the Frist payroll). Like Bush, Frist prefers to hear from Republicans. I gave up writing to 'my senator' when I realized he was never ever going to send me the usual form letter response.
Still, Tennesseans should head on over to Frist's new blog and ask the doctor if he's heard that hundreds of thousands of his constituents have lost healthcare coverage and are unable to obtain their life saving medicines. Tell him the ghost of Terri Schiavo sent you.
Hat tip Taegan Goddard
Bill Frist HCA SEC Frist Republican corruption
