Category: Politics Beat Blog

It is two-and-a-half months away, and numerous distractions (Memphis’, most notably, is the mayor’s race) lie in between, but the special session of the legislature that Governor Don Sundquist is preparing to call for the first week of November will doubtless be one of the stormiest and most controversial periods in the state’s political history.

Several events of the past week or so make that clear. Among them:

á As part of his preparation for the session, Sundquist is on a speaking tour of the state. Last Thursday that took him to a luncheon meeting of the Memphis Exchange Club, during which he used a variety of newly prepared charts and graphs to document his point that, without significant tax reform (and, in practice, that means increased taxes), the state will incur a $382 million deficit next year.

Sundquist spelled out the areas most vulnerable to a revenue shortfall — education, prisons, TennCare, roadbuilding among them — and joked that he had ordered all state departments needing new vehicles to buy white ones instead of orange ones to save money on the paint.

“This year’s budget was put together with Scotch tape and baling wire,” said Sundquist, who added he would be hesitant to propose specific formulas himself after seeing several versions of his tax reform plan shot down by the legislature last spring. The governor reiterated, however, that he would be willing to accept a state income tax if the legislature proposed one. “I’m willing to take responsibility and the political hit because I know what’s required,” Sundquist said.

á The hits weren’t long in coming, and the first salvo was lobbed in from a fairly lofty and distance source. The Wall Street Journal weighed in the very next day with a Friday editorial attacking the Sundquist administration for backing off from what it noted had been the governor’s onetime commitment not to support a state income tax.

“[L]ike many governors in their second term, he [Sundquist] is building a legacy that includes $582 million in new spending this year,” the newspaper said, continuing, “The prospect of a special session has supporters of an income tax salivating: They range from teacher unions to businesses that want to shift their tax burden to ordinary folks.”

The WSJ editorial noted that Tennessee in 1978 passed “a constitutional amendment capping budget increases to the rate of economic growth unless the legislature specifically authorized an exception,” but that the cap had been exceeded “nine times over the last 20 years.” The paper quoted Michael Gilstrap of the Tennessee Family Institute, an ad hoc organization opposed to new taxation, as saying, “Tennessee is growing its government faster than the big spending states of the Northeast.”

The Journal called for the issue of a state income tax to be put on a state referendum ballot. “Of course, that won’t happen,” the editorial concluded, “because the real crisis is a lack of courage to reform the budget coupled with the knowledge that the voters of the Volunteer State aren’t about to sign up for a tax they know will never go away.”

á Meanwhile, two conservative anti-tax groups promised anew to organize stout opposition to Sundquist’s tax reform program. One of them was Gilstrap’s Tennessee Family Institute. Another, the “Free Enterprise Coalition,” is headed by former state Republican chairman Tommy Hopper, who this week likened the pending conflict to “war” and invokes the blood-and-guts rhetoric of the late General George S. Patton to justify his opposition.

“It will tear apart parties. It will dramatically change the makeup of the legislature. And it will be one tough campaign,” vowed Hopper of the upcoming special session struggle.

á On the other side, several state PR firms are offering support to the state’s main ad hoc pro-tax group, Citizens for Fair Taxes, which has already enlisted the services of former Senator Howard Baker and former Governor Ned Ray McWherter. Among those offering their aid and comfort as of this week: former McWherter spokesman Ken Renner; Lewis Lavine, a longtime aide to former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander; and Mark McNeely of the prominent Nashville agency, McNeely Piffot and Fox.

Bo Johnson of the PR firm of Smith, Johnson, and Carr, which is heading up the main effort for CFT, announced that the ad hoc organization will spend $1.8 million to convince Tennesseans that the state is in a fiscal crisis. Johnson said, however, that the campaign would not specifically mention or endorse a state income tax in the TV, radio, and newspaper ads it will purchase, acknowledging that polls show that most Tennesseans are not yet convinced that the state needs to raise money.

á Agreement to that last point came from outgoing Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen (see “Editorial,” this week), who told the Nashville Tennessean in a weekend interview, “The argument being made is we [the state] need more money. But I’m saying I’m not on board with that notion, even though a lot of people are.” Bredesen went so far as to say that the whole notion that the state is in fiscal crisis has been “overstated.”

(Perhaps not coincidentally, Bredesen — the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate against the GOP’s Sundquist in 1994 — also indicated that he may harbor political ambitions for 2002. “It [being governor] is something I’ve wanted to do. I wish I’d been governor, and I tried hard to be governor,” Bredesen said.)

The Nashville mayor did say that he thought a state income tax would be a fairer method of taxation than further reliance on the current state sales tax.

You may think that Marsha Blackburn, the arch-Republican state senator from posh Williamson County, the same Marsha whose Paul Revere-like emails from her legislative desk summoned up a host of angry protesters at the state Capitol in Nashville last July 12trh, can do no wrong with members of the anti-tax movement. Fahgitaboudit!

Believe it or not, there is a group of politically active citizens so much further to the Right and so ideologically Simon-pure as to be capable of putting even Sen. Blackburn on the griddle. As witness Wednesday night, when Blackburn drove by herself all the way to Memphis at a friend’s invitation to address members of the Shelby County Libertarian Party at Pancho’s Restaurant at the Cloverleaf Shopping Center on Summer.

Don’t misunderstand, she was the subject of much stroking and congratulations for her role in organizing the mass turnout at the Capitol last month, which critics maintain was a crude intimidation of the parliamentary process and which admirers contend was democracy in action. Blackburn didn’t quite get called “Joan of Arc” (local anti-NBA-Arena protester Heidi Schaefer, who was in attendance, got that honor), but Blackburn was called “heroine,” “ patriot,” all of that.

She may not have been prepared, however, for two questioners who were starting from Ground Zero where she was concerned, cutting her no slack for reputation or previous service. One made it clear that, whatever else Sen. Blackburn may have done, she was still one ‘a them tax-drawing drones sitting up there in Nashville at the people’s expense..

Another questioner, dripping with skepticism, demanded to know if she would abide by the U.S. Constitution (as defined by himself, of course). She allowed as how she would. “Are you sure?” the man demanded. “We’re going to hold you to it!”

The same man offered her a hoary catechism wrapped in a trick question. “Do we live in a democracy or a republic?” he demanded to know. Marsha answered quite sensibly, “A little bit of both,” thereby evading the semantic trap her questioner had set, ultimately for himself to fall into.

Blackburn, it turns out, has an acute sense of the New Age politically and of her role in it. She is aware that the conventional strict-constructionist conservative may choose to insist that ours is a republic, but she knows full well that the mass callout which she helped organize on July 12th (a variant of which was hazarded here locally on Monday at a Shelby County Commission meeting considering a tax increase) was a democratic phenomenon, a throwback to the Power to the People and participatory-democracy models which today’s conservatives have inherited from yesterday’s leftists. (According to the strict-constructionist “republic” model, you see, the people’s elected deputies should have been left alone and untroubled on July 12th, to reflect at their leisure on the merits of income-tax legislation.)

Blackburn said she was in no wise emulating Sen.Robert Rochelle, who is circuit-riding the state at his own expense to proselyte for tax reform (i.e., the income tax). “I just happened to get an invitation down for ths one event,” she said.

As to her future political plans, the senator from Williamson County said she would have to wait for redistricting to determine whether she might contemplate a congressional run (she is just now in Democrat Bart Gordon‘s 6th Congressional district but could conceivably end up in the 7th District of Rep. Ed Bryant, who would dearly love to run for the Senate if senior Republican Fred Thompson doesn’t seek reelection. And “friends” have continued to sound her out about a gubernatorial race. (Evidently, just as she is judged less than pure by strict constructionists, so is GOP favorite Van Hilleary considered not quite ideal by some purists on the Right.) “I have learned to say, ‘Never Say Never,’” Blackburn said, “but, of course, it is getting somewhat late in the game.”

Of two lodgemates among the legislature’s conservative contingent who had offered criticism of her actions last month, Blackburn was forgiving. “I think he’s a fine man who’s done many wonderful things,” she said of Sen. David Fowler (R-Signal Mountain), who said on the night of July 12th that Blackburn was “out of the loop” and had lost “all respect among the conservative, low-tax caucus.” She was equally kind toward Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville), who had said of Blackburn’s alarm-sounding emails, “She hollered fire in a crowded theater.” Norris was “a decent man” trying to do the right thing, Sen. Blackburn said.

You may think that Marsha Blackburn, the arch-Republican state senator from posh Williamson County, the same Marsha whose Paul Revere-like emails from her legislative desk summoned up a host of angry protesters at the state Capitol in Nashville last July 12trh, can do no wrong with members of the anti-tax movement. Fahgitaboudit!

Believe it or not, there is a group of politically active citizens so much further to the Right and so ideologically Simon-pure as to be capable of putting even Sen. Blackburn on the griddle. As witness Wednesday night, when Blackburn drove by herself all the way to Memphis at a friendÕs invitation to address members of the Shelby County Libertarian Party at PanchoÕs Restaurant at the Cloverleaf Shopping Center on Summer.

DonÕt misunderstand, she was the subject of much stroking and congratulations for her role in organizing the mass turnout at the Capitol last month, which critics maintain was a crude intimation of the parliamentary process and which admirers contend was democracy in action. Blackburn didnÕt quite get called ÒJoan of ArcÓ (local anti-NBA-Arena protester Heidi Schaefer, who was in attendance, got that honor), but Blackburn was called Òheroine,Ó Ò patriot,Ó all of that.

She may not hve been prepared, however, for two questioners who were starting from Ground Zero where she was concerned, cutting her no slack for reputation or previous service. One made it clear that, whatever else Sen. Blackburn may have done, she was still one Ôa them tax-drawing drones sitting up there in Nashville at the peopleÕs expense..

Another questioner, dripping with skepticism, demanded to know if she would abide by the U.S. Constitution (as defined by himself, of course). She allowed as how she would. ÒAre you sure?Ó the man demanded. ÒWeÕre going to hold you to it!Ó

The same man offered her a hoary cathecism wrapped in a trick question. ÒDo we live in a democracy or a republic?Ó he demanded to know. Marsha answered quite sensibly, ÒA little bit of both,Ó thereby evading the semantic trap her questioner had set, ultimately for himself to fall into.

Blackburn, it turns out, has an acute sense of the New Age politically and of her role in it. She is aware that the conventional strict-constructionist conservative may choose to insist that ours is a republic, but she knows full well that the mass callout which she helped organized on July 12th (a variant of which was hazarded here locally on Monday at a Shelby County Commission meeting considering a tax increase) was a democratic phenomenon, a throwback to the Power to the People and participatory-democracy models which todayÕs conservatives have inherited from yesterdayÕs leftists. (According to the strict-constructionist ÒrepublicÓ model, you see, the peopleÕs elected deputies should have been left alone and untroubled on July 12th, to reflect at their leisure on the merits of income-tax legislation.)

Blackburn said she was in no wise emulating Sen.Robert Rochelle, who is circuit-riding the state at his own expense to proselyte for tax reform (i.e., the income tax). ÒI just happened to get an invitation down for ths one event,Ó she said.

As to her future political plans, the senator from Williamson County said she would have to wait for redistricting to determine whether she might contemplate a congressional run (she is just now in Democrat Bart GordonÕs 6th Congressional district but could conceivably end up in the 7th District of Rep. Ed Bryant, who would dearly love to run for the Senate if senior Republican Fred Thompson doesnÕt seek reelection. And ÒfriendsÓ have continued to sound her out about a gubernatorial race. (Evidently, just as she is judged less than pure by strict constructionists, so is GOP favorite Van Hilleary considered not quite ideal by some purists on the Right.) ÒI have learned to say, ÔNever Say Never,Ó Blackburn said, Òbut, of course, it is getting somewhat late in the game.Ó

Of two lodgemates among the legislatureÕs conservative contingent who had offered criticism of her actions last month, Blackburn was forgiving. ÒI think heÕs a fine man whoÕs done many wonderful things,Ó she said of Sen. David Fowler (R-Signal Mountain), who said on the night of July 12th that Blackburn was Òout of the loopÓ and had lost Òall respect among the conservative, low-tax caucus.Ó She was equally kind toward Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville), who had said of BlackburnÕs alarm-sounding emails, ÒShe hollered fire in a crowded theater.Ó Norris was Òa decent manÓ trying to do the right thing, Sen. Blackburn said.

There is a characteristic moment in any Shelby County Commission debate of consequence when Julian Bolton, who once taught dramatics at college, seems to get a whiff of which way the wind is blowing through the audience out there in the auditorium.

He begins to lean in the direction of the onlookers, swiveling his head due left so as to be looking right into their faces, and when he talks, he appears to be addressing the folks out there, not his commission colleagues.

The predominant school of thought among principals at Monday’s commission meeting seemed to be that the 75 or so people who showed up early to raise hell against a tax increase for the county schools were the fruits, as Shelby County school board member Ron Lawler put it, “of ten days straight of Mike Fleming trying to turn a crowd out.”

Indeed, there had been a dedicated attempt at conscription on the part of the popular WREC-AM 60 radio talk show host Ð who generally is a gentle rain and sweet reason itself compared to his tempestuous counterparts in Nashville, Steve Gill and Phil Valentine.

In the manner, however, of Gill and Valentine, who on each occasion this year that the state legislature came close to giving serious attention to a state income tax did their shows and broadcast their exhortations from the pavement of Legislative Plaza, Fleming set up his broadcast booth Monday afternoon on the concrete patio outside the county office building where the commission was meeting.

Many of the folks inside the often rowdy commission auditorium (some of whom proclaimed themselves to be members of the “Turnip Liberation Army,” as in “Turnip Your Nose at a Tax Increase,” as one sign had it) had answered Fleming’s call, and, though this group included many of those who had protested both the NBA Grizzlies’ cause and previous potential tax increases, there were some newcomers as well Ð noticeably less interested in the niceties of public discourse than earlier protesters had been.

Bolton, however, acted as though he were in the presence of Vox Populi.

And the commission’s newest member, Bridget Chisholm, who– perhaps not coincidentally– sits to Bolton’s left on the auditorium stage and frequently consults with her neighbor, also seemed caught up in the often turbulent crowd reaction as the commission met Monday to complete action on the current fiscal year’s budget so as to fund the Shelby County schools.

For reasons best known to themselves (although some clue was surely afforded by their frequent sidewise glances toward the audience, as well as to the omnipresent TV cameras from all four local news channels), both Bolton and Chisholm began professing a belief that the taxing arrangement which everyone save Bolton had signed on to at the commission’s previous meeting was something other than what it was.

As had been extensively reported in both the electronic and print media, a bargain had been struck two weeks ago between key members of both the commission’s white Republican and black Democratic factions whereby a majority of Republicans would accept a property tax increase in the range of 43 cents in return for a Democratic majority’s approval for a doubling of the regressive wheel tax.

As outlined by GOP Commissioner Buck Wellford, who with partymate Tommy Hart had crafted the plan, there was a third component as well– a sense-of-the-commission resolution that the county’s municipal governments would be asked to forgo their share of a potential local-option sales-tax increase in the interests of the county schools.

As part of the deal, county school superintendent Jim Mitchell and school board president David Pickler agreed to urge the municipal governments to accept such an arrangement.

On Monday, both Bolton and Chisholm professed for some while to believe that only a 33-percent property-tax increase had been agreed upon. Ultimately, budget chairman Cleo Kirk, in a whispered conversation, convinced Chisholm otherwise, and she reversed an earlier vote against the 43-cent figure so as to finally pass and activate the combination tax package.

Wellford– who, with Hart, Kirk, and Commissioner Walter Bailey, was cited for positive leadership by Pickler– said later he found it a strange reversal that two Democratic commissioners had tried to take a stand in favor of holding down the property tax. “Usually that’s a Republican cause,” Wellford said.

In subsequently making his case against the 43-cent increase, Bolton — who was hooted by the audience early in the meeting when he seemed to say he would support a property-tax increase at that level– told the crowd, “Some of them [commissioners] have not heard you. I have.”

Wellford made it clear he did not regard the crowd, which frequently unloosed catcalls and interrupted commissioners’ remarks, in the same positive light. “It was obvious some of them came just to put on a show and were there to humiliate the commission,” he said.

It was Wellford,in fact, who– after referring to the crowd disturbances in Nashville which frustrated an effort on behalf of a state income tax at the end of the legislative session last month — called for a five-minute recess and asked chairman James Ford to summon a complement of county police and sheriff’s deputies to maintain order.

There is a characteristic moment in any Shelby County Commission debate of consequence when Julian Bolton, who once taught dramatics at college, seems to get a whiff of which way the wind is blowing through the audience out there in the auditorium.

He begins to lean in the direction of the onlookers, swiveling his head due left so as to be looking right into their faces, and when he talks, he appears to be addressing the folks out there, not his commission colleagues.

The predominant school of thought among principals at Monday’s commission meeting seemed to be that the 75 or so people who showed up early to raise hell against a tax increase for the county schools were the fruits, as Shelby County school board member Ron Lawler put it, “of ten days straight of Mike Fleming trying to turn a crowd out.”

Indeed, there had been a dedicated attempt at conscription on the part of the popular WREC-AM 60 radio talk show host — who generally is a gentle rain and sweet reason itself compared to his tempestuous counterparts in Nashville, Steve Gill and Phil Valentine.

In the manner, however, of Gill and Valentine, who on each occasion this year that the state legislature came close to giving serious attention to a state income tax did their shows and broadcast their exhortations from the pavement of Legislative Plaza, Fleming set up his broadcast booth Monday afternoon on the concrete patio outside the county office building where the commission was meeting.

Many of the folks inside the often rowdy commission auditorium (some of whom proclaimed themselves to be members of the “Turnip Liberation Army,” as in “Turnip Your Nose at a Tax Increase,” as one sign had it) had answered Fleming’s call, and, though this group included many of those who had protested both the NBA Grizzlies’ cause and previous potential tax increases, there were some newcomers as well — noticeably less interested in the niceties of public discourse than earlier protesters had been.

Bolton, however, acted as though he were in the presence of Vox Populi.

And the commission’s newest member, Bridget Chisholm, who — perhaps not coincidentally — sits to Bolton’s left on the auditorium stage and frequently consults with her neighbor, also seemed caught up in the often turbulent crowd reaction as the commission met Monday to complete action on the current fiscal year’s budget so as to fund the Shelby County schools.

For reasons best known to themselves (although some clue was surely afforded by their frequent sidewise glances toward the audience, as well as to the omnipresent TV cameras from all four local news channels), both Bolton and Chisholm began professing a belief that the taxing arrangement which everyone save Bolton had signed on to at the commission’s previous meeting was something other than what it was.

As had been extensively reported in both the electronic and print media, a bargain had been struck two weeks ago between key members of both the commission’s white Republican and black Democratic factions whereby a majority of Republicans would accept a property tax increase in the range of 43 cents in return for a Democratic majority’s approval for a doubling of the regressive wheel tax.

As outlined by GOP Commissioner Buck Wellford, who with partymate Tommy Hart had crafted the plan, there was a third component as well — a sense-of-the-commission resolution that the county’s municipal governments would be asked to forgo their share of a potential local-option sales-tax increase in the interests of the county schools.

As part of the deal, county school superintendent Jim Mitchell and school board president David Pickler agreed to urge the municipal governments to accept such an arrangement.

On Monday, both Bolton and Chisholm professed for some while to believe that only a 33-percent property-tax increase had been agreed upon. Ultimately, budget chairman Cleo Kirk, in a whispered conversation, convinced Chisholm otherwise, and she reversed an earlier vote against the 43-cent figure so as to finally pass and activate the combination tax package.

Wellford — who, with Hart, Kirk, and Commissioner Walter Bailey, was cited for positive leadership by Pickler — said later he found it a strange reversal that two Democratic commissioners had tried to take a stand in favor of holding down the property tax. “Usually that’s a Republican cause,” Wellford said.

In subsequently making his case against the 43-cent increase, Bolton — who was hooted by the audience early in the meeting when he seemed to say he would support a property-tax increase at that level — told the crowd, “Some of them [commissioners] have not heard you. I have.”

Wellford made it clear he did not regard the crowd, which frequently unloosed catcalls and interrupted commissioners’ remarks, in the same positive light. “It was obvious some of them came just to put on a show and were there to humiliate the commission,” he said.

It was Wellford,in fact, who — after referring to the crowd disturbances in Nashville which frustrated an effort on behalf of a state income tax at the end of the legislative session last month — called for a five-minute recess and asked chairman James Ford to summon a complement of county police and sheriff’s deputies to maintain order.

Watch this space for coverage of Monday’s pivotal Shelby County Commission meeting.

In an interview before he addressed an audience of the East Shelby County Republican Party at the group’s annual “Master Meal” at Woodland Hills Country Club Friday night, 4th District U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary shied away from loosing any broadsides at a possible general election opponent, Democrat Phil Bredesen, and gave the former Nashville mayor credit for sincerity in his recent espousal of a no-new-taxes policy toward state government.

Hilleary was somewhat more grudging in his attitude toward a GOP partymate, Governor Don Sundquist, declining to say that, if nominated, he expected the governor’s support in a general election contest, other than to say, “I would anticipate having the support of every elected Republican in the state.” Would he seek Sundquist’s support?, he was asked. “I seek everybody’s support,” the congressman replied.

“I’ll give the governor some credit,” Hilleary said. “I think he’s working very hard to restructure TennCare right now, and I thnk a lot of the things he’s doing are thing I would do if I were in his shoes.I think we’re moving the right direction.”

But Hilleary made it clear that the twain were far from meeting on the issue of tax reform.

“I think anytime there’s an issue at the forefront that divides a party rather than serves to bind a party, it’s a problematic situation. The income tax is something the vast majority of Republicans don’t want anything to do with it. There’s a few that do.”

Hilleary, who went on to stress education as a key issue in the interview as well as in his prepared remarks, opined that he would be “extraordinarily lucky” if he didn’t have “some primary opponent” next year.

So far only former State Rep. Jim Henry of Kingston has indicated an interest in challenging Hilleary in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary.

In an interview before he addressed an audience of the East Shelby County Republican Party at the group’s annual “Master Meal” at Woodland Hills Country Club Friday night, 4th District U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary shied away from loosing any broadsides at a possible general election opponent, Democrat Phil Bredesen, and gave the former Nashville mayor credit for sincerity in his recent espousal of a no-new-taxes policy toward state government.

Hilleary was somewhat more grudging in his attitude toward a GOP partymate, Governor Don Sundquist, declining to say that, if nominated, he expected the governor’s support in a general election contest, other than to say, “I would anticipate having the support of every elected Republican in the state.” Would he seek Sundquist’s support?, he was asked. “I seek everybody’s support,” the congressman replied.

“I’ll give the governor some credit,” Hilleary said. “I think he’s working very hard to restructure TennCare right now, and I thnk a lot of the things he’s doing are thing I would do if I were in his shoesÉ.I think we’re moving the right direction.”

But Hilleary made it clear that the twain were far from meeting on the issue of tax reform.

“I think anytime there’s an issue at the forefront that divides a party rather than serves to bind a party, it’s a problematic situation. The income tax is sometjing the vast majority of Republicans don’t want anything to do with it. There’s a few that do.”

Hilleary, who went on to stress education as a key issue in the interview as well as in his prepared remarks, opined that he would be “extraordinarily lucky” if he didn’t have “some primary opponent” next year.

So far only former State Rep. Jim Henry of Kingston has indicated an interest in challenging Hilleary in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary.

U.S. Senator Bill Frist, who acknowledges that his Tennessee Republican colleague, Senator Fred Thompson goes “up and down” on his willingness to pursue a reelection race in 2002, said in an interview Thursday that there is “a 70 percent probability” that Thompson will run next year.

Frist was in Memphis as guest of honor at a fund-raiser at the downtown Plaza Club for U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant, who has senatorial ambitions that can be shelved in favor of a congressional reelection race.

In apparent response to what many took to be a senatorial-race trial ballon floated by former Governor Lamar Alexander last week, Frist said, “In the event that Senator Thompson does not run for reelection, I have no doubt that Ed Bryant has far and away more support to succeed him than anyone else.”

Frist’s presence, coupled with his interview statement, had to be regarded as a huge boost for Bryant, who expressed some annoyance last week with Alexander’s collaboration with former Vice President Al Gore in a Nashville-based political seminar and said of an item in the Wall Street Journal on Alexander’s potential Senate candidacy, “I wondered what he [Lamar] was doing giving all that free publicity to Al Gore. Now it seems obvious he had another motive.”

Any statement about senatorial prospects counts especially heavy coming from Frist, who is considered as close to President George W. Bush as any member of Congress and is both the president’s liaison with the Senate and chairman of the Natinal Republican Senatorial Committee.

Another prospective Senate candidate who could take heart from Frist’s remarks is Elizabeth Dole, who is the subject of a boom in North Carolina now that incumbent Sen. Jesse Helms has announced retirement plans. Other Republicans have expressed interest in Helms’ seat, including former U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth, U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, ex-Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot, and attorney Jim Snyder.

Frist confirmed that “serious” conversations have begun between Dole and the president’s inner circle, a fact which is bound to be galling to the other hopefuls.. “These [the talks] didn’t happen as early as some reports indicated, ” Frist said, “but for the last day or so, they’ve been going on in earnest.”