Tennessee Political Roundup

This morning's Tennessean had more on the allegations that Senator Frist used inside information to dump his HCA stock at a very opportune time. Frist sold his stock in June; as it were, in April, May, and June several HCA executives also sold their stock in the company. (The Tennessean has a chart!) While the senator has no official ties to the company's leadership, HCA is the Frist family business. Senator Frist would have had the inside scoop.

In the interest of fairness, I wanted to link to a defense of Frist. I skimmed the local conservative blogs searching for a different take on this story but came up empty. Interestingly, at the national level Leon H of Red State.org is calling for Frist to step down as majority leader. Leon's request that the senator resign his position is only partially related to the current scandal.

I was unable to attend this week's blogger luncheon with GOP senatorial candidate Ed Bryant, but Bruce Barry (Nashville Scene) has a good account of the meeting. (If you have problems with Bruce's take, I'm sure you'll find something among the subsequent comments that makes you happy.)

John Spragens, in this week's Nashville Scene, looks ahead at the 2007 Nashville mayoral election. Current Mayor Bill Purcell still isn't sure if he's allowed to run for a third term. (After his proposed sales tax hike was soundly defeated last week, running for a third term might not be such a good idea anyway.) If Purcell doesn't run, look for former U.S. Representative Bob Clement, Nashville Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, and businessman/political novice Lucius Carroll II to join the race. You know, I've given some thought to running for office. What do you think, Tinley for Nashville Mayor in 2007?