Frist Will Not Seek Republican Presidential Nod

[Ron Burgundy]

CQPolitics.com - Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee announced today he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

Republican Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record) of Tennessee took his name out of the running for the 2008 presidential campaign, announcing Wednesday that he and his wife, Karyn, will be taking a “sabbatical from public life.”

The outgoing Senate majority leader’s decision comes after he received some blame for his party’s drubbing in this month’s midterm elections that saw Republicans lose six Senate seats, allowing Democrats to win a 51-seat majority — a feat once thought highly improbable.

“In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close,” Frist said in a statement. “I do not intend to run for president in 2008.”

Frist’s decision to retire this year after two terms, combined with successful fundraising for his Volunteer Political Action Committee, signaled to many that he was setting the stage for a presidential bid.

Frist had promised to serve only two terms when he was first elected to the Senate in 1994 and now says he plans to return to the medical profession where he worked as a transplant surgeon.

“I will resume my regular medical mission trips as a doctor around the world to serve those in poverty, in famine, and in civil war,” said Frist, who added he will continue to advocate for overhauling health care as well as securing clean water and public health internationally.

Frist’s medical background put him in a controversial position during the congressional intervention into the case of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman whose parents were challenging her husband’s wish to have her feeding tube removed because Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. Frist reviewed videotape and read court affidavits that led him to conclude Schiavo’s diagnosis may not have been correct.

Schiavo died despite congressional intervention, but Frist’s involvement earned him praise from conservative groups while others in the medical community questioned his actions.

While Frist has generally backed the Republican Party’s conservative tenets, his leadership in the Senate has drawn harsh criticism from some quarters. In 2005, his plan to change Senate rules to stop Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees fell apart after the bipartisan “Gang of 14” thwarted his efforts.

House Republicans were infuriated in early 2003 when he moved forward with tax cut legislation that was not nearly as robust as conservatives had hoped.

Frist’s Senate seat will be filled by Republican former Chattanooga City mayor Bob Corker, who bested Democratic Rep. Harold E. Ford (news, bio, voting record) Jr. of the Memphis-area 9th District.

Frist’s announcement was not expected despite the fact he has been ranking below other contenders in national polls.

Quinnipiac University conducted its latest “thermometer reading” of national leaders the week following the Nov. 7 election. In that survey, Frist was ranked near the bottom of a list of 20 national figures, some with reported presidential aspirations: Republican former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani led the poll, followed by Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona.

Jonathan Allen contributed to this report.