CNN this morning on Frist.

[rwork]

Soledad was discussing Frist tryed to sell his stock in HCA in April, so that must clear him from insider trading. Story closed.

[Dr Batsen D Belfry]

1. I thought the whole point of a blind trust

was that Frist couldn't control the money at all, regardless of timing.

DBDB

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. That's how it SHOULD be, but it's not.

Nor is that a crime either. I hope we've got something to trump that.

[still_one]

5. sorry but frist is special, that is how he diagnosed Terry Shivao

without seeing her

[ComerPerro]

13. Very true. And he was so right on that diagnosis! LOL

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. April was not all that long ago, and if this is a case of insider trading

I am sure that the insiders knew long BEFORE the actual stock sale that things were going south. This does not absolve him at all in my opinion. Plus, what about his own statements that say it "would be illegal" for him to even know what stocks were in his trust? So, how can he direct any sales at all whatsoever is what is purported to be a blind trust?

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. Look at this great Frist timeline. He has been lying all along. Thinking

about selling his stock in April means nothing, it's just a faux attempt to save him.

The Frist Stock Timeline:
http://thinkprogress.org/frist-stock-timeline

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. thanks for the link....very interesting n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. YVW, even though you are a Yankees fan.

I'm a Red Sox diehard, but Progressivism can overcome even this. Most of the time. ;)

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. Wow, the weekend didn't turn out the way I thought it would

I thought one of us or the other would be in tears. Personally, I was mad at Torre and our team yesterday. It was like they gave up and then Torre used it as a showcase for picking playoff pitchers. I thought for a moment he was going to put the batboys in.

I'll be honest, I wanted Boston out this weekend. Because I think your team is SO good. I think might have been a fluke that we won on Sat, and I dread facing you again.

[Nothing Without Hope]

18. : - )

I'll be honest, I wanted Boston out this weekend. Because I think your team is SO good. I think might have been a fluke that we won on Sat, and I dread facing you again.

You're my kind of Yankees fan! Even the guy across the street would approve such a sentiment, and he's the one with the "Yankees Suck!" bumper sticker. (As a native Texan, that bumper sticker has always struck me funny. ;) )

I'm just glad it isn't over yet, and I hope the rest of the games are good ones.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. You're a native Texan? From where? I am from Connecticut

but now live in Texas - 20 miles from the Ranch.

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. Born & raised in Fort Worth, went to Permian High School in Odessa

That's the exact school that's the setting of the book and movie "Friday Night Lights," and I can testify that football was indeed the ONLY important thing and I screamed my lungs out at those Friday night games at Ector County Coliseum.

My brother and his family live in Austin, and I have to say, Austin and San Antonio and the country enviirons round about there are my favorite part of Texas. I've never been particularly fond of the culture/"feel" of Dallas or Houston - they just don't feel like Texas to me, more like a hepped-up dime store cowboy version of the real thing. I love New England and am blown away by its beauty, but Texas will always have first place in my heart. And heart is what Texas is all about.

Bush is such a faux "Texan," it is sickening. As for Tom DeLay, Molly Ivins really got his number as a very ABNORMAL sort of Texan back in March. Molly really knows her Texas pols from decades of close observation and first-hand interactions, and she's got DeLay's number BIG TIME:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18735
Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
03.17.05

The stench of rotting ethics

Only Tom DeLay's removal can freshen our nation's capitol

AUSTIN, Texas -- The John Wesley Hardin Died for You Society has a theme song that goes: "He wasn't really bad. He was just a victim of his times." I sometimes find this useful in trying to explain Texas political ethics to outsiders.

My theory is that few Texas pols are actual crooks, they just have an overdeveloped sense of the extenuating circumstance. Woodrow Wilson Bean once warned himself that he was skatin' close to the thin edge of ethics. After a moment, he concluded, "Woodrow Wilson Bean, ethics is for young lawyers."

(snip)

I grant you a certain resemblance to some of our more notorious standards: "Everybody does it" and "They did it first" are actually considered excuses here. But I categorically reject cultural responsibility for Tom DeLay. Real Texas politicians are neither hypocritical nor sanctimonious. A pol does what he must -- fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly -- but no pol of the Old School, when DeLay served in the Lege, would add self-righteousness to shady dealing.

(snip)

Another quality that makes DeLay an un-Texas pol is that he's mean. By and large, Texas pols are an agreeable set of less-than-perfect humans and quite often well-intentioned. As Carl Parker of Port Arthur used to observe, if you took all the fools out of the Lege, it would not be a representative body any longer. The old sense of collegiality was strong, and vindictive behavior -- punishing pols for partisan reasons -- was simply not done. But those are Tom DeLay's specialties, his trademarks. The Hammer is not only genuinely feared in Washington, he is, I'm sorry to say, hated.

(snip - much more at link)

[afdip]

23. great timeline . . . .thanks.

[KharmaTrain]

7. Some Laywers In New York Might Not Agree

They work in the lower district...and they're the ones who are investigating. Let's see what they come up with.

I've put this in another post, something here just doesn't add up...either that or Frist was really stupid enough to think he could get away with this.

Actually this could open an interesting door...when is a blind trust truly blind and how can it be affected by a Senator or vice president by their actions...both in office and through the proxies who oversee their trusts. Either way, methinks Mr. Frist will face a lot of questions and I don't think he's gonna come off lookin' too good.

:popcorn:

[jsamuel]

8. Exactly, let the investigators investiate

We solve problems because we are "problem solvers."

[lonestarnot]

10. I'm not "not for short for nothing" NOT NOT NOT

[notadmblnd]

11. What do you mean "tried"?

he put it up for sale and no one bought it? All of my experiences in selling stock (which I've done a couple of times) I've never had to worry about a "buyer". Did Solidad also report that Frist stock was sold during a company blackout? NO? I didn't think so.

[Ilsa]

15. "...Frist stock was sold during a company blackout..."

Thanks for mentioning this. I didn't know about it. How can he get away with this?

[Zynx]

12. Not necessarily. That was in the 2nd quarter and the bad news was

probably apparent to management around that time considering that the announcement came out after the second quarter earnings release.

[Ilsa]

14. How do you not succeed in "trying " to sell your stock if

you are trying to divest for conflict of interest reasons? Her argument makes no sense, IMO.

[Nothing Without Hope]

22. Yeah, I thought the same thing. Either you sell or you don't. In fact

as soon as I heard about this faux argument I thought: Frist was laying the groundwork to escape an insider trading charge.

He certainly lied again and again about even knowing he HAD HCA stock in that not-so-"blind" trust.

[Straight Shooter]

16. Frist's stock sale should be investigated just like Whitewater was.

After all, he wants to be president, right? He should have nothing on his record to tarnish his absolute Republican integrity.

How much did we spend on Whitewater? (Of course, the Clintons were cleared but that has nothing to do with anything in the Repub morality structure.) So, let's spend some money and dig really really deep into Frist's special little stock sale.

Yeah, right, like that's gonna happen.

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. BACK STORY on Frist family massive fraud and more -see this thread

and the links posted in the replies. This latest scandal is only one more in a very long line of massive fraud, conflict of interest, and shading campaign finance dealings:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4846742
thread title: NYT on FRIST’s possible insider trading - and HUGE 2000-3 HCA FRAUD