Posted 7:53 PM by Blah blah

Fascinating!

New Challenge for a Surgeon Turned Senator (NY Times):

"The 1994 election was the year of the anti-politician, a rough and angry campaign season when incumbency and seniority suddenly became profound liabilities. It was, in retrospect, the perfect political climate for Dr. Bill Frist, a heart surgeon and utter political novice....

He did win, of course, and it was the beginning of an extraordinary political ascent one not unlike that of his friend and ally in the White House, President Bush, who was also elected to office for the first time in 1994. Then and now, in his emergence as the likely next majority leader, succeeding the embattled Trent Lott, Senator Frist has benefited from being in the right place at the right time. But he has also shown traits that have eased his path, like the ability to plunge into a subject with a surgeon's focus, a hunger to win and a powerful ambition....

Even in a city of ambitious workaholics, Mr. Frist [50 years old] stands out. He is said to prosper on very little sleep, and friends like Mr. Alexander report getting e-mail messages from him that were sent at 1 or 4 a.m. He recently told an orientation session for incoming senators that they could get much more work done if they kept surgeons' hours and were ready for duty at 6 a.m. Mark Tipps, his 1994 campaign adviser and first chief of staff, said: 'He's a very focused person. This is a guy who runs marathons, does triathlons, flies to Africa and does surgery on people who don't have physicians.' "