Frist, Bill

▪ 2004

      On Jan. 7, 2003, Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee formally became U.S. Senate majority leader. Two weeks earlier the surgeon turned politician had won unanimous backing from Republican Party colleagues to succeed Trent Lott as party leader and heal the fractures in Congress. Lott had resigned amid pressure stemming from his controversial statements made at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, at which he praised Thurmond's 1948 presidential bid on the segregationist “Dixiecrat” ticket.

      William Harrison Frist was born on Feb. 22, 1952, in Nashville, Tenn. He attended Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1974 with a specialization in health care policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Frist then attended Harvard Medical School, graduating with honours in 1978. He received surgical training at various hospitals and was hired in 1985 by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, where he founded and directed the school's renowned transplant centre. A board-certified heart surgeon, Frist performed numerous heart transplants and the first successful heart-lung transplant in the southeastern United States.

      Frist was elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 8, 1994, defeating three-term incumbent James Sasser after mounting an aggressive campaign; he became the first physician to be elected to the Senate since 1928. In 2000 he won reelection overwhelmingly. Frist served on the health committee and specialized in health care policy, particularly ethical issues in medicine and HIV/AIDS. Opposed to cloning, Frist announced support in 2001 for strictly regulated embryonic-stem-cell research.

      After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the discovery of anthrax spores in congressional mail, Frist was increasingly consulted as a leading Senate expert on bioterrorism. He also expanded his expertise, sitting on committees dealing with such areas as foreign relations, budget, banking, commerce, finance, and education. Frist, praised for his bipartisanship and hard-working style, quickly ascended the Republican Senate hierarchy. In 2000 he was elected to head the National Republican Senatorial Committee, helping the party win majority control of the chamber in the 2002 midterm elections.

      In July 1998, after a gunman opened fire in the Capitol, killing two police officers and injuring a tourist, Frist provided aid to both the victims and the gunman—even resuscitating the gunman and escorting him to the hospital. He also dispensed aid to Thurmond after the senator became ill in the Senate chamber in October 2001. Perhaps most dramatically, while vacationing in Florida just before he was to be sworn in as Senate leader in January 2003, Frist provided “invaluable” medical assistance to victims of an automobile crash.

      During 2003 he was successful in shepherding much of Pres. George W. Bush's agenda through the Senate, particularly legislation on Medicare reform, but Frist drew fire from Republican colleagues for agreeing to cap Bush's proposed $726 billion tax-cut package at $350 billion. His support for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage (he later qualified his position) came on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling striking down Texas's antisodomy law. Frist's stance sparked controversy, winning praise from conservative allies and criticism from liberals.

Michael I. Levy

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