Both medical doctors and senators are stereotypically arrogant and Frist's actions can only be explained by arrogance, stupidity, or both. The "blind" trust that held Frist's assets was hardly blind by any sense of the word. Frist should have sold off all his holdings when he first took office and then given his monies to an investment company to invest without telling Frist where the money was invested (a truly blind trust).
The Poliblogger thinks this Martha-Stewart-moment may have fatally damaged Frist's public image. While I greatly respect the Poliblogger's political expertise, I would classify him as a libertarian, not a social conservative. Thus I think he understates the case. This recent fiasco may harm Frist with the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. Frist was already dead-on-arrival with the social conservative wing.
Frist has been an ineffective Senate Majority leader, acting more like a Senate Minority leader than the head of a Republican Senate whose party has a majority in both houses plus the presidency. Frist has flipped on the embryonic stem-cell issue of great importance to his conservative core. He also showed his political inexperience in how he flipped.
There is no possible way I will vote for Senator Frist in the primaries should he continue with his plans to run for the presidency. I will actively campaign for his opposition. However, Senator Frist may have enough political experience by 2007 to see which way the winds are blowing and avoid running for president. If not, I predict Frist will not win the Republican primary.
