Frist Ends Presidential Bid
Then There Were 13 Republicans
By California Yankee Posted in 2008 — Comments (33) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Tennessee Senator and Republican majority leader Bill Frist, will not be running for president in 2008.
Frist made the announcement in a statement:
Read on.
My dad in his later years wanted to impart some wisdom to his grandchildren and great grandchildren he would never meet. One thing he wrote that has stuck with me- in fact been a clarion call to me - was “there is so much good to do in the world and so many ways to do it.
Politics is a noble occupation. Medicine is a noble profession. Service to others underlies both.
The people of Tennessee elected me twice to the U. S. Senate, and I was humbled and honored by their support and every day I did my best to serve them with integrity and common sense.
Twelve years ago, I pledged to the people of Tennessee that I would serve two terms in the Senate – to serve as a true citizen legislator – and then return home. I said I’d come to the Senate with 20 years experience in healing, spend 12 years serving in Washington, then go right back to Tennessee to live where I grew up. I’ve never deviated from that commitment. And I will do just that.
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.
The 13 potential 2008 Republican candidates include:
- Virginia Senator George F. Allen
- Kansas Senator Samuel D. "Sam" Brownback
- Illinois attorney John H. Cox
- Former US House Speaker and Georgia Congressman, Newton L. "Newt" Gingrich
- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. "Rudy" Giuliani
- Nebraska Senator Charles T. "Chuck" Hagel
- Arkansas Governor Michael D. "Mike" Huckabee
- California Congressman Duncan L. Hunter
- Arizona Senator John S. McCain III
- New York Governor George E. Pataki
- Massachusetts Governor W. Mitt Romney
- Colorado Congressman Thomas G. "Tom" Tancredo
- Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson
Senate Majority Leader and Tennessee Senator, William H. "Bill" Frist
With Frist's decision not to run, there remain 25 potential 2008 presidential candidates.
« Dueling June Obama fundraising claims? — Comments (2) | Carter Endorses Gore — Comments (30) »
Frist Ends Presidential Bid 33 Comments (0 topical, 33 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I mean, really. It's over.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
but I keep seeing Hagel listed in the potential candidates column in every source that expands the list enough (saw him listed on Fox News just a couple days ago). haven't heard anything about him dropping out.
David Ignatius op-ed that was in the Washington Post yesterday, Hagel should make an announcement one way or the other within the next few months. It's worth a read.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR200611...
it's really nice to see a politician who actually honors their self-imposed term limits. Thanks, Bill.
--------
After the 2006 elections, al Qaeda released a statement saying they were happy Democrats won. That should tell you all you need to know.
Could it be his deleterious Republican agenda leadership?
If Frist would have brought his scalpel with him, we would have been better off. As a leader his job is to get the agenda in order, he didn’t. Granted Bill did not get much help from some of his members. Nonetheless, as effective leader gets everyone pulling in the same direction and creates the balance lacking in today’s GOP.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
I've been sorely disappointed with his leadership at times, and so could not support him for President, but I have little doubt he is one of the very best people in Washington (which is saying nothing less for the fact that there is so little competition), and that is higher praise than a vote for President in my opinion. Tennessee will gain for having him back.
or 8 single-digit wonders would take a hint and clear the field now.
Nice guy, met him in a restaurant in Princeton after my sister's rehearsal dinner. He is a class act. Not much of a senate leader, though.
a terrible senate leader, and I am not sad to see him take his name out of the presidential hat.
...the suprise (ish) breakout contender will be Huckabee. I've heard negative things about him on here, but I think he's a very very serious contender.
another. I predict that Tommy Thompson will now get some serious consideration and backing with Bill Frist out of the running.
You’re a persistent cuss, pilgrim.
John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I'm not sure that I'd mind Tommy Thompson. I'd rather that he run for the Senate in Wisconsin, though.
Huckabee, on the other hand, will find serious opposition. We don't need an economically illiterate populist, Big Government Republican leading the party. If he ran against Mark Pryor for the U.S. Senate, I'd still probably only tepidly support him. And even then, only as long as Mitch McConnell promised us that Huckabee would be kept far, far away from the Appropriations Committee for as long as McConnell is the Senate GOP leader.
evidence for these accusations, would you? What is Huckabee's record as governor? He is a successful, consensus-building conservative.
A precedent embalms a principle.
- Disraeli
Add Jim Gilmore to the list. He's now said he may run!
Gilmore has no chance. His less than stellar tenure as Governor of VA and RNC chair aren't exactly things he can tout during a run.
I'm still bitter about the internet gambling ban. The Republican Party needs to expand its coalition. Guys like Frist think that pandering to Bible Belt Evangelicals is the only key to success and, unfortunately, it seems as if many Bible Belt Evangelicals expect absolute servitude. I'm glad the base is giving Romney a real look. I think he can satisfy the base and maybe pull in some new people. I'm also glad Hagel is back in. He got a lot of crap, but he was often right and showed lots of courage. McCain is a little too old, inconsistent and neocon-ish for 2008. I would like to see Romney run from the right and Hagel run as the maverick and hope Rudy just goes away. I can't believe people are taking him seriously. He's an ex-mayor who is liberal on every single social issue and is an unrealistic hawk in the vein of Krauthammer and Kristol, which independents and many conservatives are just sick of. This country is war weary. The "lets bomb hezbollah and Iran and maybe Syria" crowd needs to away for the next two years.
I agree with you on the stupidity of the internet gambling thing. However, it was spun as a pander to the Bible Belt when it was really a pander to the casino gaming industry. You see...more people gambling online could mean fewer gambling at casinos. So...the casinos wanted to nip that real quick.
The Casino Gambling/Social Conservative Anti-Gambling Coalition (talk about strange bedfellows) was simply too powerful for the GOP to resist. They still should have resisted, though.
We need an economic freedom-loving, social conservative-libertarian, foreign policy neocon elected president in 2008. Mitt Romney is the only one who looks like that candidate to me right now.
at least the ones that got revenues from lotteries.
Not sure how true this is, but if the gambling industry was being harmed, it only makes sense that lotteries may have been harmed as well.
The wire act which purportedly bans Internet gambling across has been in effect since long before the previous Congress, you know. The law you think you're referring to didn't ban Internet gambling actually.
But please, don't let the facts keep you from spewing the Libertarian Talking Points.
--
It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. -- Calvin Coolidge
You're right, it didn't ban internet gambling explicitly.
However, the house bill does prohibit people to do wire tranfer of money (credit card, etc) to online casino gambling operators. Which is pretty much the only way online gambling can work. No money transfer = no internet casinos.
A few years ago I used to play a lot of hold em, and some of it was online. Now thanks to a power-hungry and corruptded legislators, what I view as my freedom to spend my money on legal activieis (gambling is still legal for those over 21) has been violated. I might have expected a bill like that from a Dem congress - in fact when I first heard that such a bill was being considered, I was initially angry at the house dems because I assumed that they were responsible for the majority of the support and sponsorship for the house bill. But I would have never imagined that I perceived to be the party of small and limited government would succumb to such a stupid and quite frankly, completely unjust law.
So yes, maybe the bill does not "ban" internet gambling. Just like a prohibition on beer-brewing does not technically ban beer-drinking.
Yeah lets go away for 2 years, by then Iran ought to have a Nuke. Good call...
Hagel doesn't have a prayer of winning the nomination,b ut at least running will get him out of the senate (his seat is up in 2008).
And I hope that Pete Ricketts wins his seat. :-) I could live with Mike Johanns, but he's just going to be another ag pork king. grrr
_______________________________
If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
if he's not running for office, he'll have time on his hands.
Having tasted a life wasted, I ain't ever going back again.
-E.V.
The Wire Act did not ban gambling. It banned bookmaking. It became illegal to accept wagers not place them. So all the bookmakers went offshore. Hence, 12 million Americans, many republicans and conservatives and independents, placed online wageres last year. As, Geroge Will stated "Gambling is, however, as American as the Gold Rush or, for that matter, Wall Street." The George Will article is great, a must read on the subject
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15265338/site/newsweek
A sure fire winning stategy for 2008 - lets get more hawkish with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Why don't we just hand the presidency to Hillary, that'll be good for the war on terror and the furture of our Republic. We lost the independents in 06 and need to get them back in 08.
Now I can be assured that I won't fall asleep during the debates while he speaks.
Romney in 2008!!!
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
YEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
Now, if the rest of the RINOS get the message....
Rose
Drop Allen....the GOP just won't run him anymore than they will Santorum. I'm not cheering about it, but when you loose your own state, you are "damaged goods."
I'm guessing that by 2008, the New Hampshire Primary will be down to three candidates....McCain, Giuliani, Romney. Maybe Newt.
I must have imagined it.
Also, I think you can go ahead and strikeout Allen. C'mon, it'll be like pulling off a Bandaid.