Frist Living the Fancy Life
An $857 bill at a posh Washington steakhouse. A $1,700 bill at the Four Seasons in Miami. A $1,000 bill at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island. A $1,890 bill at the Planters Inn in Charleston, S.C., where guests can “awaken to breakfast on silver, brought to your room.” These and other lavish expenditures from the most-recent report of Volunteer PAC, operated by Majority Leader Bill Frist, are detailed on VeryFancyFrist.com, a web site launched last week to highlight the extravagant lifestyle enjoyed by the senior senator from Tennessee. Perhaps the most disturbing revelation spotlighted on the site is that since 2001, Frist has spent $69,030 to fly on corporate jets, $22,656 of which was for flights hosted by pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer Corp. and Schering-Plough. Of course, the actual cost of the chartered flights was much higher, but members of Congress are only required to reimburse the corporation for the cost of a first-class commercial flight to the same destination. A recent report in the Tennessean noted that Frist has flown on corporate aircraft more than any other member of Congress over the last five years. Also, the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Justice Department opened investigations late last year into Frist’s sale of stock in HCA, the health care company founded and managed by his family, just before the stock price plummeted. Of the investigation, Jennifer E. Duffy of the Cook Political Report said, “I do think this hurts his future ambitions, even if he’s exonerated.”
For more information, visit www.veryfancyfrist.com.
