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Frist Says Job Bad Spot to Seek Presidency:Posted By: Janine Delacroix By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says his high-profile job is a "terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible" post for seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.Making it clear that a White House bid is all but certain, Frist said in an interview with The Associated Press that remaining in the Senate would make a presidential run impossible. Frist plans to step down when his second term ends this year. "I know the perch not to even consider," he said. "That would be, for me, the United States Senate or being majority leader." Asked if trying to run a campaign from such a position would be difficult, he replied: "Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible." One of possibly a dozen Republicans interested in the GOP nomination, Frist said in the interview late Tuesday that once out of the Senate, "you'll see, as you do now, the real Bill Frist but unencumbered by having responsibilities of leading this body, which results in negotiated positions." The last senator to succeed in his presidential bid was John F. Kennedy in 1960. Another Massachusetts senator, John Kerry, lost to President Bush in 2004, hampered in part by an extensive Senate voting record that opponents used against him. In 1996, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas realized that trying to pursue the White House as the Republican nominee from the Senate's top job would be an obstacle. He resigned in June and lost to President Clinton five months later. Frist, a heart and lung surgeon, was the White House's choice for majority leader after the undoing of Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., whose favorable comments about Strom Thurmond's segregationist past cost him the leadership post in 2002. Frist has made the customary trips of a presidential candidate, traveling to New Hampshire and Iowa. He further demonstrated his determination to be a contender earlier this month when he bused dozens of supporters to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis and emerged as the winner of a straw poll of possible GOP candidates. Frist still faces political and possibly legal obstacles. He is under investigation for possible insider trading by federal authorities following his sale last year of stock in the hospital chain HCA Inc., which his family founded. Frist has said he did nothing wrong. He acknowledged that he needs to improve his speaking skills, particularly in a campaign. "I will have to really work hard on it," Frist said. "As a surgeon, I did my best work when people were sound asleep, cutting out their hearts, putting new hearts in. And now what I need to do, everybody says, is do your best work and not put people to sleep. That's what I'll work on." ___ On the Net: Frist's office: http://frist.senate.gov/ Courtesy Of: Yahoo! News The information reported above is property of Yahoo! inc. and reprinted or modified with legitimate permission. We thank Yahoo! inc. for the kind cooperation with us and other shareholders. |
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