Wrong store at the wrong time

May 13, 2005

I just received word from a reliable source about a story that’s too funny not to share.

Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist swung by an Allen-Edmonds shoe store today, and like many working families in Tennessee do all the time, picked up two pairs of shoes totaling $530. What he didn’t realize, however, was that the Allen-Edmonds was located in the same building as the offices of Americans United to Protect Social Security.

So, while Frist shopped, AUPSS staffers got organized. By the time he was done, dozens of protestors had assembled to chant, “Senator Frist Don’t Privatize” and “Hands Off My Social Security.” He doesn’t look like he’s having a good time.

shh

frist2

And, as an added bonus, according to my source, Frist had parked his SUV in front of Allen-Edmonds illegally, blocking traffic. The Majority Leader not only was berated by those who support Social Security, he was ticketed. (Though, one has to assume, Frist spent more on his new shoes than he will on his parking ticket.)

The Campaign for America’s Future added this little tidbit:

* $922 Average guaranteed monthly SS benefit for a senior today.

* $313 What’s left of the guaranteed monthly SS benefit a senior today would have with the Bush privatization plan.*

* $530 Amount Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) dropped on two pair of new shoes today.

* (Retiree who had earned about $37,000 per year during their working years and who chose a Bush privatized account. Source: Center on Budget & Policy Priorities)

Call it a hunch, but Frist probably won’t be stopping by that Allen-Edmonds again anytime soon.

Frist needed some “practical” shoes that he can use to run away from honest people looking for answers to questions like, “What does it feel like when you sell your soul?” and “What does it feel like to lose your integrity?”

  • Even more interesting, Dr. Frist is passing up an opportunity to buy the only other high-end mens’ shoes, made in America–by the Johnston & Murphy Shoe Company of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

    As a Wisconsinite, I don’t give a damn about the politics of my cobbler. I have tried them both, and prefer the fit and manufacture of J&M shoes to those made by Allen Edmonds. They make the 13A that has fit my foot like a glove and always lasted seven years.

    But Bill Frist–that mail-it-in diagnostician and stumblebum Presidential wannabe–ought to go on record as supporting the local product from the state he represents in Congress. Tennesseeans are now notorious for not supporting a favorite son. Why give’m another reason to write you off.

    Jim Bouman
    Waukesha, Wisconsin

  • It’s hard to look more clueless than George W. Bush but Bill Frist is really giving it a shot. You go Bill.

  • In the first photo, frist looks like he wants, or is actually telling them, to “Shush”, doesn’t it?

    And of course, the obligatory sunglassed policethug looking on.

    Wonder if any in the crowd asked Frist what he did, as a good countryboy from Tennessee, with those cats he liberated from the pound, BEFORe he cut’em up for “research”?

    His “mule”?

  • Two pairs of shoes: $530

    Best spontaneous photo op of the decade: Priceless!!

  • Just another sleezeball!! What a great guy! Two pair’s of shoes at $265 each and he couldn’t even buy the ones made in his state. A hell of a Represenative of Tennessee.
    As far as the Frist spokesperson saying Bushes plan doesn’t cut benefit’s. This guy needs to get his head out of his ass.

  • Farang, that ‘policethug’ just gave Frist a ticket. Knowing only a limited number of policemen myself I can tell you that Bush and the Republicans are not terribly popular. A friend who recently retired from a career as an undercover vice cop, a guy who’s still alive because he’s supernaturally good at judging character, watched the first inaguration and declared that Bush had to be the most sinister, dishonest weasel he’d ever seen on the national stage. Yes, he remembered the Nixon years.

    The NYPD, feh. With the sort of population density those guys have to manage I’m not surprised that they’re twitchy as hell. I wouldn’t use them to characterize policemen in general.

  • Another rich elitish radical Republican for Jesus. The Anti-Christ is alive and well in Tennessee.

  • The woman in the foam Social Security Card? Hilarious. Did she put it on in her office and head downstairs, having to cram into an elevator or bump down the fire escape? Maybe she carries it in a duffel bag until the right moment comes along. Either way, it’s one classic image. Frist such a loser.

  • Dear Mr. Bouman and “Cowboy” – For the record, Mr. Frist would not be buying American-made products if he purchased Johnston & Murphy shoes as they are actually manufactured overseas. While you may not agree with his politics, and his choice of a parking space on May 13 could be characterized as unwise, at least he is supporting the United States economy and laborers by purchasing American-made Allen-Edmonds shoes manufactured in Wisconsin.

  • I love Allen Edmonds shoes.
    If Frist will look after the American people, we all could be buying American Allen Edmonds shoes, instead he looks after the Communist Chinese Government.

    • Comments are closed.