Frist won't run for president

Posted: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 11:07 AM by Huma Zaidi

From NBC's Mark Murray
NBC News confirms, per a source close to the senator, that Sen. Bill Frist will announce today that he will not run for president.

The Hotline reports that Frist will hold a press conference in his home state of Tennessee.

Frist, who is also a doctor, released a statement saying that after serving in the Senate for 12 years, he will return home to live a "private life" so that he can go back to his "professional roots as a healer."

“In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close. I do not intend to run for president in 2008," Frist writes.

He adds that he and his wife Karyn will take a "sabbatical from public life" and that in the interim he hopes to travel on "medical mission trips as a doctor around the world to serve those in poverty, in famine, and in civil war."

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Comments

to paraphrase the religious right, "Thank God!!"

Mark-Westlake Village, CA (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:16 PM)

Geez Bill, why didn't you do something to help "those in poverty, in famine, and in civil war" while you were in office? At a minimum, why didn't you help those in poverty in our country? Enjoy your over-the-top congressional pension while helping those poverty sticken, famished, civil war vicitims you care so much about. By the way, what does your God say about those issues?

scott, winona mn (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:28 PM)

Now he can travel the world trying to raise the brain dead. It would have been fun to see him with Katherine Harris as a running mate.

Russell, Silver Spring, MD (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:42 PM)

Jeez, Russell, Terri Shivo, maybe, but Katherine Harris? That albatros? Forget it. Me thinks someone hears the pitter-patter little cat feet of the SEC. "Blind" trust? Don't bother Bill with that PC nonsense. Corruption, HO!

I'm just sayin' (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 1:42 PM)

Frist in his written statement says he's stepping down "to refocus my creative energies on innovative solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges Americans face", isn't this what senators are elected to do in the first place? If he couldn't do this as an elected official good luck in private life. Good Riddance.

Say What? (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:12 PM)

He really shouldn't need to travel to far away countries to do medical missionary work, his ability to perform remote diagnoses should serve him well in this capacity.

chanbo Seattle WA (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:06 PM)

Well, the first insurmountable challenge Americans face is Dubya. Can Frist take him along when he goes to Darfur? And about helping those in a 'civil war', is he using the White House Definition or the NBC Definition? His backing of 'Stay the Course' in Iraq might also bring into question his definition of the term, 'healer'. Oh well, one less politician is better than none.

Steve Turner Cedar Falls Iowa (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:27 PM)

He can start his sabbatical in Iraq now that it's in civil war.

Nancy B. McCarthy, Columbia, South Carolina (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:51 PM)

How about starting his sabbatical in New Orleans? There's a serious shortage of doctors and nurses there and only 2 functioning hospitals out of what had been 11 before the storm....

Olivia Elizabeth Burdon, Peoria, Ill. (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 4:31 PM)

You sick,leftist posters above are either pathologically deranged or insanely jealous...perhaps both. What a morbid bunch of creeps! Wonder if any one of you has ever done anything for humanity either in national military service, Vista, the Peace Corps, personal voluntarism, or in any other venue? Your snide commentary reveals a lack of self-worth, a selfish demeanor, and a closed mind. Frist is doing exactly what he long ago said he would do, and that is ten to the twenty-third power greater than the summation of you sorry losers. Seek therapy and heal yourselves.

Enough Ofcreeps (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 6:50 PM)

I'm just wondering if the report on his stock dealings is just around the corner.

Robert Catalano, Salem, OR (Sent Wednesday, November 29, 2006 7:16 PM)

Bill Frist...video neurosurgeon...frist will be able to cure aids and hunger from his computer terminal...after all, he healed Terri Schiavo via the internet just 18 months ago...

Rick, Winston Salem, NC (Sent Thursday, November 30, 2006 11:07 AM)

Hey Everybody! We've got a NEW right wing projector! Remember now 'Enough', we're laughing AT you and not WITH you. We know well enough, that all of our lives and hopes and dreams and accoplishments, aren't worth a seconds' worth of evaporation from His Emminence Frist's smallest little toe. But we go on, in our humble way, to poke him in the eye, with our semi-pointed words. That is what we do. You've used up a lot of insanity, so next time, you've got to come up with another line of projection. We don't laugh at re-runs.

Steve Turner Cedar Falls Iowa (Sent Thursday, November 30, 2006 1:24 PM)

We\'re ever so thrilled that you\'ve visited our page dealing with travel advice.

travel guide (Sent Wednesday, September 05, 2007 12:11 PM)

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