Does Frist have any chance of winning the GOP nomination?

[Joe Republic]

I'll be shocked if Frist gets as far the first primaries after New Hampshire.  Let's look at a few things about him:

1. He's a senator.  I know that doesn't stop him winning the nomination, but people should learn that governors win elections, not senators.

2. He's the Senate Majority Leader.  Like I said somewhere else, that doesn't win you many friends from across the aisle, which is crucial to winning over the swing voters.

3. He's boring.  People won't want to vote for that, and history has usually shown that to be true.

4. He has a questionable past.  For what the kitty killing incident is worth, at least.

5. He'll be out of a job by 2008.  He's not running for re-election in 2006, which means he'll be known as "Former Senator" Bill Frist, which immediately puts "has-been" in people's minds.

[Joe Republic]

What is this whole kitty killing deal with Frist anyway?  I've heard it mentioned several times here and other sources but never seen nor heard any specifics.  Someone please fill me in.

From Wikipedia:

While in medical school, Frist adopted cats from Boston animal shelters, telling shelter staff he intended to keep them as pets. He would then experiment on and kill the animals as part of his medical studies. Later, in his 1989 book "Transplant," he commented: "It was a heinous and dishonest thing to do. I was going a little crazy."

[Joe Republic]

He appologized then.  So it's a non-issue . . . unless he did it again after apologizing.

You'd think it was a non-issue.  It is to me (and I find his actions and lack of ethics were truly disgusting).  But we've all seen how these things just linger for years after they apologize.  See Robert Byrd.

[Joe Republic]

I guess the issue is also whether they're truly sorry for their past misdeeds.  I very much doubt Bob Byrd is, and you have to wonder if Bill Frist really regrets lying, experimenting on and then killing cats for his research.  He didn't care about them then, so I doubt he'd care about them now.

Obviously how a guy feels about cats doesn't really affect how they'll run the White House, but its more a matter of questionable ethics.

[Joe Republic]

I knew there was something about the guy I found creepy, until now, I couldn't put my finger on it.  To be honest, I've always had that same feeling about DeLay.  Still can't put my finger on that one.

DeLay built his fortune as a bug exterminator.  Nothing really wrong about that, but I've always found guys with an obsession for killing insects a little creepy.  Interestingly, he's now obsessed with completely annihilating the Democratic Party.

[Joe Republic]

Whats your beef with Frist?

Have you read anything in this thread, or the countless others that mention his name?