The Smell of Moral Decay Wafting from Bill Frist is Overpowering

From the Sun Times:

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 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 of the information Frist received complied with federal law and Senate ethics rules, Stevenson said.