Bill Frist's Appearance on Meet the Press

I have never seen Sen. Frist looking so unnerved. From the beginning of interview he appeared terribly off his game. It went from bad to worse. By the time he got to the HCA stock situation, he looked pale and nervous. He tried to profer the "blind trust" defense that Russert challenged in a shockingly direct manner that the trust remained at all times self-directed. A "blind trust" in this instance is an absolute oxymoron andFrist seemed to quickly and contritely abandon his feeble defense.

The other big question was regarding his presidential aspirations. He predictably demurred, but I simply don't see it happening. A year and one-half ago, I considered him a leading candidate. He had seemed to carefully cultivate the religiously conservative portion of the republican party that always seem interested in any alternatve to John McCain (let alone Rudy Guiliani). Since Karl Rove effectively engineering his ascention to majority leader (by remaning conspicuously silent when Trent Lott faced challenges as a result of his comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party), he sought to carefully cultivate that most powerful wing of the party('cept for stem cell). I fear those efforts will now come to naught. For now I rate Frist chances of the '08 nomination a 1 on a scale of 1-10.