[GOP Corruption]

Frist: Probably a Crook

As mentioned in a daily brief earlier this week, it turns out that Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader, earlier dumped all his stock in the family business, just before it took a dive. The Times picks up the narrative:

It's long been known that the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, a man deeply involved in rewriting the nation's health-care and medical-malpractice laws, derived most of his wealth from HCA, the hospital company his father and brother helped found....

HCA stock, which had plunged below $20 a share back in 1999 because of a federal fraud investigation, had been climbing steadily, reaching a high of $58.22 on June 22, nine days after Mr. Frist told his managers to start selling. By July 8, all the shares of HCA held by Mr. Frist, his wife and his children had been sold.

Five days later, a bad earnings report drove the price down 9 percent in a single day. Since then it has dropped even further.

Did Frist dump the stock? The Post relays some strange language from Frist's spokesperson, suggesting he's been consulting a lawyer:

There's no evidence that Mr. Frist had inside information or traded on it, though Ms. Call's [the spokesperson] careful phrasing -- that the senator "did not have any conversations with HCA executives about HCA stock when he was making the decision to divest" -- is curious.

Word came out today that the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors have taken notice: they announced they're investigating.

Three observations: 1) as Martha demonstrated, it's not always the act that gets you, it's the lying about it--and Frist seems to recognize this, using Amy Call to field all questions; 2) it is notoriously difficult to prove insider trading, but 3) guilt by implication may be enough to doom Frist's chance of a Presidential run, even if he's never indicted.