Yet ANOTHER new question is being raised about Senate Majority Bill Frist: were consultants paid out of funds from his AIDS charity? According to the AP, the answer is yes:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful’s nonprofit.
The returns for World of Hope Inc., obtained by The Associated Press, also show the charity raised the lion’s share of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources. They gave between $97,950 and $267,735 each to help fund Frist’s efforts to fight AIDS.
The tax forms, filed nine months after they were first due, do not identify the 18 major donors by name.
Frist’s lawyer, Alex Vogel, said Friday that he would not give their names because tax law does not require their public disclosure. Frist’s office provided a list of 96 donors who were supportive of the charity, but did not say how much each contributed.
Why NOT release them? If tax law doesn’t require their public disclosure and his client’s integrity (and possibly political future) is hanging in the balance in news reports wouldn’t releasing their names clear the air? And if they’re not released won’t it then leave a lingering stink (Eu de DeLay) over yet ANOTHER aspect of Frist’s financial dealings? MORE:
The donors included several corporations with frequent business before Congress, such as insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield, manufacturer 3M, drug maker Eli Lilly and the Goldman Sachs investment firm.
Of course, those must be strictly coincidental. Actually, if the money is going to AIDS isn’t that good no matter what? Except that apparently a good chunk of that money slated for AIDS according to the AP has gone to members of his political circle.
So wouldn’t it have been just so much easier for the corporate types to have simply given the money directly to members of Frist’s inner circle and cut out the middle man? MORE:
World of Hope gave $3 million it raised to charitable AIDS causes, such as Africare and evangelical Christian groups with ties to Republicans — Franklin Graham’s Samaritan Purse and the Rev. Luis Cortes’ Esperanza USA, for example…..
There are more details on the funds and their use, then this:
Jill Holtzman Vogel, who is raising money for a run for the state Senate in Virginia in 2007, has received thousands in contributions this year from Catignani & Bond and from her husband, among numerous other sources, according to data released by the Virginia Public Access Project.
Alex Vogel said Frist picked people to work on his charity whom he trusted and knew, such as Vogel’s wife, and was proud that overhead costs amounted to less than $1 of every $5 raised. “It’s leaner than the average charity,” Vogel said.
Frist is listed as the charity’s president and his wife was listed as secretary. Neither was compensated.
Political experts said both the size of charity’s big donations and its consulting fees raise questions about whether the tax-exempt group benefited Frist’s political ambitions.Kent Cooper, theFederal Election Commission’s former public disclosure chief, said the big donors’ motives are also suspect.
“These tax deductible gifts were earmarked through Senator Frist,” Cooper said. “They were raised in the political arena at the 2004 Republican Convention and the natural question is were they given to the Senate majority leader to gain favor or were they given for true charitable purposes?”
Cooper said the consulting fees were “excessively high” and the fact that they were “paid to primarily political consultants also raises questions about the long-range strategic benefits for the 2008 presidential race.”
Frist is turning into one of the GOP leadership’s most fascinating and (for them) troublesome characters.
He reportedly aspires to run for President but unlike Ronald Reagan who was the Teflon President Frist seems to be The Velcro Politician. His graceless and often clumsy attempts to adjust his positions have made him seem less a leader with his hand over his heart saluting the flag than a politico with his finger held up in the political the wind. And as far as being an effective Senate leader, when the history of majority leaders is written he will be to Senate leadership what New Coke was to Coca Cola.
Many politicians can quietly align themselves with controversial groups or side with one group and finesse it. With Frist, it has been done in a clumsy, sometimes unwise way that undermined his ORIGINAL image: a young surgeon, an up-and-coming Republican who was President George Bush’s man to replace Trent Lott (when the foot Lott himself shoved into his own mouth went in so far it came out his political backside).
The question is: what does the GOP do? Does it recognize it now has a “Frist problem” — a Majority Leader who is providing lots of hot stories about questionable financial dealings to editors and who is not exactly helping the Republicans shed the image of a party that has become the same kind of party Newt Gingrich once condemned?
And if this is all a terrible misunderstanding, shouldn’t financial dealings that are this sloppy be a warning flag to voters about his quality control?
Do Republicans cut their losses (there is definitely talent in the GOP that could challenge Frist for the leadership position and probably do a far better job in tha leadership post) or cirlce the wagons via the talk shows, friendly newspapers and cable shows and blogs and defend him because he’s a Republican under attack?
On all of these charges and allegations Frist is, of course, innocent until proven guilty. But perception means a LOT in politics and right now Frist is carrying enough baggage to make overworked TSA inspectors wince. That poor political imagery and the eyebrows it’ll raise won’t help him — or his party. Expect the Democrats to take this story and run with it. And expect the press to keep probing into Frist’s financial dealings.
MORE COMMENTS ON THIS ISSUE:
Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit
My DD
Think Progress
The All Spin Zone
The Ruth Group
Deep Thought
Details At Eleven
Seeing The Forest
Victory 06
Down With Tyranny
Fired Up
Vaguely Local
Disinterested Party
Water Weaving
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.