Bill Deadline

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Bill Deadline

William Harrison "Bill" period (* 22. February 1952 in Nashville , Tennessee ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . The heart surgeon represented the state of Tennessee in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2007 . He served as the Senate Majority Leader from 2003 to 2007 and was often named as a potential Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential election .

Family, education and work

Bill Frist is by far the youngest of three sons and two daughters of doctor Thomas Fearn Frist , who co-founded the Hospital Corporation of America in 1968 and ran the company for a long time. The New York Times called him the "father of the modern commercial hospital system" in its obituary. Bill Frist's great-great-grandfather had been one of the first 53 Chattanooga settlers . He first studied at Princeton University and in 1972 did an internship with a congressman. In 1974 he received a Bachelor of Arts in health policy there. In 1978 he earned a doctorate in medicine from Harvard University . He then worked as a surgeon at various clinics in England and the USA . He specialized in cardiac surgeon, rebuilt the transplant program at Vanderbilt University and performed more than 200 heart and lung transplants .

Deadline was married to the Texan Karyn McLaughlin from 1981; they have three sons. After the divorce in 2012, he remarried in 2015. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee and is a Presbyterian .

Political career

Frist had no interest in politics for a long time and first voted in 1992 at the age of 36. That year, he was appointed to a commission by then- Governor of Tennessee, Ned McWherter , to help contain the cost of Medicaid in the state.

Senator specializing in health policy

In the 1994 election , Frist was elected to the US Senate by beating longtime Democratic mandate holder Jim Sasser by a margin of 14 percentage points. His victory against the well-connected, political heavyweight Sasser, supported by his own investment of 3.5 million dollars, was considered a sensation. After his victory, the only one against a long-time mandate holder that year and the first by a practicing doctor since 1928, he made the cover of Time magazine . He did not part with his shares in the family business, but gave them to a blind trust . In addition to his own resources, he was looking for financial support for election campaigns, especially with pharmaceutical companies.

Deadline began his mandate on January 3, 1995. From the beginning he was a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transport and the Committees on Banking and Housing , Budget , External Relations and Labor . His rise to the party leadership began in 1999 when he became deputy whip of the Republican Senate faction. In the 2000 presidential campaign , Frist was the liaison for Republican candidate George W. Bush in the Senate; after his election victory, Frist advised Bush's transition team .

When he was re-elected in November 2000 , he won 65 to 32 percent of the vote against the Democrat Jeff Clark, the highest number of votes in the history of the state of Tennessee. As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2001 to 2003, Frist was responsible for finding suitable candidates for Senate election campaigns, soliciting and distributing donations. He succeeded in the Senate election in 2002 to win a majority for the Republicans in this body. In this position he worked closely with the White House under President George W. Bush. He had already considered in the election campaign to make a deadline for his running mate and candidate for the vice presidency , but preferred Dick Cheney . Prior to the 2004 presidential election , there was much speculation as to whether Frist Cheney would replace Cheney as vice president in order to find a suitable successor for the 2008 election .

Majority leader from 2003 to 2007

From 23 December 2003, he served as majority leader (Senate Majority Leader) Chairman of the Republican faction and was sitting among others in the Rules Committee . His work ethic, White House ties, and success in the 2002 election saw him as suitable for this leadership position, despite being the most inexperienced politician to ever hold the post. His management style was criticized by some observers as reserved and aloof and his independence questioned. Because of the blockade of personnel proposals by the Democrats, Deadline, against strong opposition, considered repealing the filibuster tradition ("nuclear option"). Democrats called the project an abuse of office and disrespect for the traditions of the Senate. The successes of the deadline include an expansion of Medicaid to include prescription drugs and the confirmation of two conservative judges for the Supreme Court , John Roberts and Samuel Alito .

His handling of the case of coma patient Terry Schiavo caused a stir . Before the Senate plenary 2005 deadline stated due to a one-hour video that Schiavo had recorded state, it contest the diagnosis of the doctors that they are in a vegetative state located. This remote diagnosis was widely rejected as inadequate, especially since the diagnosis made by the doctors after Schiavo's death turned out to be correct.

Many political observers cited Deadline as a possible Republican candidate for president after winning the test vote at a 2006 Republican Congress. On November 29, 2006, however, he announced that he would not run for the presidency. As a reason he cited his close ties to the unpopular Bush administration . In the 2006 Senate election - in line with his original promise - he did not run again and therefore left the Senate on January 3, 2007. His fellow party member Bob Corker followed him in his mandate .

Later engagement

Deadline considered running in the Tennessee gubernatorial election in 2010, but decided against it. Since then, he has been publicly committed to the issues of education and health through non-profit organizations and has not ruled out another run for political office. In a guest post for the Washington Post in July 2018, Frist urged current Republican senators to put the country above the party; they were supposed to protect the special investigation into Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia in the 2016 election campaign by Robert Mueller and thus protect the integrity of democracy and the rule of law.

Positions

In general, time-limit conservative positions are certified; his focus is on health policy. In 1997, for example, he played a leading role in enacting a ban on human cloning . In 1998/99 he was a member of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare , in which health care reforms were designed. Deadline is against abortion except in the cases provided for in the Hyde Amendment . In 2003, the American Conservative Union gave it an agreement of 88 percent ( Trent Lott : 93 percent). After George W. Bush's election victory, Frist was one of his most important allies in the implementation of “compassionate conservatism”, which led to the No Child Left Behind Act . Deadline, who is personally involved in Africa against the spread of AIDS and saved several lives through medical emergency measures in Washington, was therefore sometimes referred to as a moderate voice of the political center . Newsweek confirmed to him at the end of 2002 that, thanks to these personal qualities, he had one of the "largest gold mines for public relations of today". He also differs from traditional conservatives in his scientific training and approach.

In the stem cell debate, Frist broke away from President Bush's rejection. Deadline broke the Republican party line in 2009 when, during discussions about the future of the health system, he called for support for the profound Obama-led reform Obamacare . After Republicans won the 2010 election in the United States, thanks in particular to their opposition to Obamacare , Frist urged his fellow party members to accept the law and work with it instead of striving for an abolition. In February 2015, he and Hillary Clinton called for health insurance for children to be further promoted.

Fonts

  • Transplant: A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-And-Death Dramas of the New Medicine. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York 1989, ISBN 0871133229 ( review , review ).
  • with J. Harold Helderman (Ed.): Grand Rounds in Transplantation. Chapman & Hall, New York 1995, ISBN 0412042711 .
  • with J. Lee Annis Jr .: Tennessee Senators 1911–2001: Portraits of Leadership in a Century of Change. Madison Books, Lanham, MD 1999, ISBN 1568331207 .
  • When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism From the Senate's Only Doctor. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD 2002, ISBN 978-0-7425-2245-9 ( review , review ).
  • Bill Frist: A Senator Speaks Out on Ethics, Respect, And Compassion. Monument Press, Washington, DC 2005, ISBN 0-9769668-3-2 .
  • A heart to serve. The Passion to Bring Health, Hope, and Healing. Center Street, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-59995-146-1 .
  • with Manish K. Sethi (Ed.): An Introduction to Health Policy: A Primer for Physicians and Medical Students. Springer, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4614-7735-8 .

Web links

Commons : Bill Frist  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ^ Amy Goldstein: Deadline Kept His Eyes on the Prize. Portrait. In: The Washington Post , January 12, 2003.
  2. Kenneth N. Gilpin: Dr. Thomas Frist Sr., HCA Founder, Dies at 87. In: The New York Times , Jan. 8, 1998.
  3. a b c Bill Deadline Fast Facts. In: CNN.com , Aug. 20, 2013; William H. Deadline, MD, FACS. In: Vanderbilt.edu (English).
  4. Emily Heil: Former Senate leader Bill Frist weds Tracy Roberts. In: The Washington Post , June 1, 2015.
  5. getahn Ward Gulch developers project big changes for area by 2030. In: The Tennessean , May 4, 2014.
  6. a b Michael Kranish: First responder ( Memento from 1 November 2002 at the Internet Archive ). Portrait. In: The Boston Globe , October 27, 2002.
  7. a b c d e f Mark Byrnes: William H. Deadline. In: The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture , December 25, 2009, last updated in 2011.
  8. ^ David Beiler: Surgical precision: how Senate power Jim Sasser was stomped by a political novice in Tennessee ( Memento from February 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). In: Find Articles , April 1995.
  9. ^ David Grann: The Price of Power. Portrait. In: The New York Times , May 11, 2003.
  10. ^ John Byrne: Letter: Deadline Schiavo diagnosis being reviewed in Tennessee. In: Raw Story , June 30, 2005; Anne E. Kornblut: Schiavo Autopsy Renews Debate on GOP Actions. In: The New York Times , June 16, 2005.
  11. a b Erik Schelzig: Bill and Karyn Frist end marriage after 31 years. In: Deseret News , September 10, 2012 (English; Associated Press material ).
  12. ^ Bill Frist: The Senate I led put country over party. This one must do the same for Robert Mueller. In: The Washington Post , July 6, 2018.
  13. ^ William H. Deadline, MD, FACS. In: Vanderbilt.edu ; Bill Deadline. In: OnTheIssues.org (English).
  14. Eleanor Clift: Capitol Letter: Will Bill Frist Remain Saintly? In: Newsweek , December 26, 2002; Who is Bill Deadline? In: World Magazine , January 2003.
  15. David Welna: Frist Defies Bush on Stem-Cell Funding. In: National Public Radio , July 29, 2005.
  16. ^ Karen Tumulty: Bill Frist on Health Bill: I'd Vote For It. In: Time , October 2, 2009.
  17. Sam Stein: Bill Frist: Health Care Is 'Law Of The Land,' GOP Should Drop Repeal And Build On It. In: The Huffington Post , January 18, 2011.