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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Nick Allard a Long Time Friend of Bill Frist
Aired December 21, 2002 - 08:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to the issue of the Trent Lott-Bill Frist story. Let's get more insight on Bill Frist from his long time friend and college buddy, Nick Allard.
He joins us live from Washington.
Good to see you.
Thanks for joining us.
NICK ALLARD, FRIEND OF BILL FRIST: Good morning.
Good morning, Fredricka and Miles.
Save me some of that coffee.
WHITFIELD: OK, we'll do that.
Well, look, you and Bill Frist have been friends for more than 30 years, if that's correct, and you knew each other as far back as your college days. How would you characterize him?
ALLARD: Well, first, you know, I have a real bone to pick with Dr. Frist. I was just looking at our college yearbook and his picture looks exactly the same.
WHITFIELD: Hate it when that happens, huh?
ALLARD: It's really a problem. That's right.
WHITFIELD: All right, well, is he the same personality that you recall? I mean obviously he's matured and grown over the years, but, you know, what are some of those outstanding characteristics about him?
ALLARD: He's very much the same. For as long as I've known him, he's always been somebody who's been respected by his peers. And, in fact, to the extent that he's had successes in leadership roles, he's often been invited or encouraged by others to take on those challenges. And certainly that's what's happened here in the Senate.
So in that extent, it's not surprising. He's always been somebody who's been very dedicated. I heard Senator Alexander referring to his humanitarianism. In college he was a big brother. He was a resident advisor. And throughout his whole life he's dedicated himself to helping others and putting things back into the community, to making the world a little bit of a better place than it was before he came on the scene.
WHITFIELD: So while it may have been difficult to ever see, you know, into the future, look into the crystal ball and see that he might be endorsed as a majority leader of the Senate, in your view he really has always been a leader or taken leadership roles and so this kind of role doesn't really surprise you?
ALLARD: Everything that Bill has ever turned his hand to he has succeeded in. And, you know, Dr. Frist, I think the White House will hope and the Senate will hope that he can be the Rumeplstilskin (ph) of the Republican Party, turning straw into gold.
You know, the remarkable thing is that since the midterm election victory of the Republicans, they have not had one single good day until now. This is a very good day for the Republican Party.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's talk about resolving conflicts, because as majority leader, that's one of the tasks that he will be confronted with. You're a Democrat. He's a Republican. Yet you still remain friends. How would you define how you all kind of work out differences, maybe political differences or any other kind of, you know, disputes that you all may verbally have? How does he, you know, carry himself when resolving such conflicts?
ALLARD: Well, from what I know of Bill, I would expect him to be a consensus builder, to be patient, a good listener, a great bedside manner, if you will. And he is somebody who I'd expect on important issues to have a lot of Democrats feeling comfortable to vote his way. It's really remarkable that you have the person in the United States Senate who is not a career politician. He's a citizen statesman and he's had an extremely successful career as the head of the heart-lung transplant center at Vanderbilt University, to be chosen among his peers to be, in effect, a political technician in the Senate. Really remarkable.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's talk about how he's managed to strike a balance between his passions of medicine and his passion of being a leader of his consistency. How do you see him being able to do that?
ALLARD: Well, first of all, he's got enormous energy and vigor and integrity. I would not advise the Democrats to attempt to filibuster Bill Frist after spending two or three years as a resident up virtually all the time. I mean he's got incredible stamina and a marathon runner. But he's a very patient and thoughtful person. He engages on ideas. He's brilliant. And so it's going to be very interesting to see him use those tools that he has.
I would expect at least two things. Number one, on big controversial issues, Dr. Frist knows how to perform triage. In other words, he won't get bogged down and have an instinct for the capillary. He will focus on the jugular and move the big themes and big issues that his party is interested in. And then second, I would expect him to really engage on substance.
You know, all too often with burgeoning staff and the unnecessary, the necessary focus on fundraising and other aspects of being a member of Congress, the members themselves have had less time and less ability to focus on substance. I would really expect Dr. Frist, as he has, for example, on the anthrax breakout, when he was so reassuring to the nation and, in fact, has authored, a book, to really roll up his sleeves and do the nitty-gritty work of passing legislation that makes sense for this country.
WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Allard, a friend, indeed, to Senator Bill Frist.
Thank you very much for joining us this morning from Washington.
ALLARD: My pleasure. Any time.
WHITFIELD: And we'll have more about Senator Frist later this hour in our Inside & Input segment. And we want your questions for CNN political analyst Bill Schneider and CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux and CNN's Kathleen Koch. So e-mail us at wam@cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Frist>
Aired December 21, 2002 - 08:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to the issue of the Trent Lott-Bill Frist story. Let's get more insight on Bill Frist from his long time friend and college buddy, Nick Allard.
He joins us live from Washington.
Good to see you.
Thanks for joining us.
NICK ALLARD, FRIEND OF BILL FRIST: Good morning.
Good morning, Fredricka and Miles.
Save me some of that coffee.
WHITFIELD: OK, we'll do that.
Well, look, you and Bill Frist have been friends for more than 30 years, if that's correct, and you knew each other as far back as your college days. How would you characterize him?
ALLARD: Well, first, you know, I have a real bone to pick with Dr. Frist. I was just looking at our college yearbook and his picture looks exactly the same.
WHITFIELD: Hate it when that happens, huh?
ALLARD: It's really a problem. That's right.
WHITFIELD: All right, well, is he the same personality that you recall? I mean obviously he's matured and grown over the years, but, you know, what are some of those outstanding characteristics about him?
ALLARD: He's very much the same. For as long as I've known him, he's always been somebody who's been respected by his peers. And, in fact, to the extent that he's had successes in leadership roles, he's often been invited or encouraged by others to take on those challenges. And certainly that's what's happened here in the Senate.
So in that extent, it's not surprising. He's always been somebody who's been very dedicated. I heard Senator Alexander referring to his humanitarianism. In college he was a big brother. He was a resident advisor. And throughout his whole life he's dedicated himself to helping others and putting things back into the community, to making the world a little bit of a better place than it was before he came on the scene.
WHITFIELD: So while it may have been difficult to ever see, you know, into the future, look into the crystal ball and see that he might be endorsed as a majority leader of the Senate, in your view he really has always been a leader or taken leadership roles and so this kind of role doesn't really surprise you?
ALLARD: Everything that Bill has ever turned his hand to he has succeeded in. And, you know, Dr. Frist, I think the White House will hope and the Senate will hope that he can be the Rumeplstilskin (ph) of the Republican Party, turning straw into gold.
You know, the remarkable thing is that since the midterm election victory of the Republicans, they have not had one single good day until now. This is a very good day for the Republican Party.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's talk about resolving conflicts, because as majority leader, that's one of the tasks that he will be confronted with. You're a Democrat. He's a Republican. Yet you still remain friends. How would you define how you all kind of work out differences, maybe political differences or any other kind of, you know, disputes that you all may verbally have? How does he, you know, carry himself when resolving such conflicts?
ALLARD: Well, from what I know of Bill, I would expect him to be a consensus builder, to be patient, a good listener, a great bedside manner, if you will. And he is somebody who I'd expect on important issues to have a lot of Democrats feeling comfortable to vote his way. It's really remarkable that you have the person in the United States Senate who is not a career politician. He's a citizen statesman and he's had an extremely successful career as the head of the heart-lung transplant center at Vanderbilt University, to be chosen among his peers to be, in effect, a political technician in the Senate. Really remarkable.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's talk about how he's managed to strike a balance between his passions of medicine and his passion of being a leader of his consistency. How do you see him being able to do that?
ALLARD: Well, first of all, he's got enormous energy and vigor and integrity. I would not advise the Democrats to attempt to filibuster Bill Frist after spending two or three years as a resident up virtually all the time. I mean he's got incredible stamina and a marathon runner. But he's a very patient and thoughtful person. He engages on ideas. He's brilliant. And so it's going to be very interesting to see him use those tools that he has.
I would expect at least two things. Number one, on big controversial issues, Dr. Frist knows how to perform triage. In other words, he won't get bogged down and have an instinct for the capillary. He will focus on the jugular and move the big themes and big issues that his party is interested in. And then second, I would expect him to really engage on substance.
You know, all too often with burgeoning staff and the unnecessary, the necessary focus on fundraising and other aspects of being a member of Congress, the members themselves have had less time and less ability to focus on substance. I would really expect Dr. Frist, as he has, for example, on the anthrax breakout, when he was so reassuring to the nation and, in fact, has authored, a book, to really roll up his sleeves and do the nitty-gritty work of passing legislation that makes sense for this country.
WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Allard, a friend, indeed, to Senator Bill Frist.
Thank you very much for joining us this morning from Washington.
ALLARD: My pleasure. Any time.
WHITFIELD: And we'll have more about Senator Frist later this hour in our Inside & Input segment. And we want your questions for CNN political analyst Bill Schneider and CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux and CNN's Kathleen Koch. So e-mail us at wam@cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Frist>
