{"id":6080,"date":"2005-12-14T11:26:12","date_gmt":"2005-12-14T16:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6080"},"modified":"2005-12-14T11:26:12","modified_gmt":"2005-12-14T16:26:12","slug":"frists-office-starts-to-crumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/frists-office-starts-to-crumble\/","title":{"rendered":"Frist’s office starts to crumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

I guess Bill Frist’s office never heard the expression, “Never let them see you sweat.” Because at this point, they seem to be in a state of near-panic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tired of questions about their boss’s stock dealings, aides to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) angrily confronted an Associated Press reporter in the Senate chamber and in a nearby hallway yesterday after a question-and-answer session on the floor.<\/p>\n

Frist’s top aide, Eric Ueland, took exception to Jonathan M. Katz’s line of questioning during the “dugout,” loudly chastising Katz as reporters filed out of the Senate chamber and into the hallway.<\/p>\n

“It’s ticking me off because it’s offensive,” Ueland said in an exasperated tone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, it got pretty heated. The AP’s Katz, a young reporter who was the first to report Frist’s unusual timing with investments in the Majority Leader’s not-so-blind trust, followed up with the senator directly, asking about comments Frist made on Fox News over the weekend, many of which appear to be untrue<\/a>. When Frist dodged the issue, other reporters smelled blood and started asking similar questions. The senator eventually said the issue was “off limits” during their Q & A.<\/p>\n

After the session was over, Frist aides followed reporters out into the hall to upbraid Katz. To his credit, Katz responded to the very public confrontation — about 25 reporters watched the confrontation<\/a> with great interest — the way he should have, by continuing to ask substantive questions that the senator wouldn’t answer. Frist staffers, of course, ignored the questions and chastised the reporter. (One reporter said a Frist aide was “demeaning and rude”; another long-time journalist said the staffer “went over the line.”)<\/p>\n

If this is a new strategy to help Frist, who’s under investigation from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, it’s hard to see the logic. By scolding reporters who are asking legitimate questions after Frist apparently lied<\/a> on national television, Frist aides are only making it clearer that this is a subject that has them deeply concerned. Does Eric Ueland, Frist’s top aide, seriously believe he can bully reporters into shifting their attention elsewhere? It seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

Ueland said the entire issue is “offensive” to him. It seems to me it’s easy to make the whole mess go away quickly — answer the questions and explain why this isn’t the scandal it appears to be. If not, Frist’s office might as well get used to these questions, and stop freaking out when they come up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess Bill Frist’s office never heard the expression, “Never let them see you sweat.” Because at this point, they seem to be in a state of near-panic. Tired of questions about their boss’s stock dealings, aides to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) angrily confronted an Associated Press reporter in the Senate chamber and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}