US: Trent Lott's successor Bill Frist could not have wished for better publicity to start his term as Majority Leader in the US Senate. The Republican senator from Tennessee came across a road accident on Florida's Interstate 75 while heading towards a family holiday home. A sport utility vehicle (SUV) had rolled over because of a blow-out, killing two of its six passengers. Frist, a noted heart surgeon, helped paramedics tend to the four surviving victims until they were taken to hospital.
"He actually pulled me away from one patient to render care to another patient, who he correctly identified as being more critical," Captain Ken Kronheim, of Broward County Fire Rescue, said.
The senator declined to give interviews, enhancing his stature as a good Samaritan who does not seek credit for heroic deeds. Frist personifies compassionate conservatism. He spends vacations bringing care to African villages, and he toured the continent with Bono to highlight the AIDS catastrophe, though he subsequently failed to get a promised $500 million from the White House to fight AIDS in Africa. The heart surgeon senator was also on hand to tend to the wounded after a gunman shot dead two policemen on Capitol Hill in 1998. He is a favourite of President Bush, mainly because of his attitude to tort reform.
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TORT reform is aimed at curtailing lawsuits precisely of the type arising from blowouts on sport utility vehicles. Two weeks ago Ford Motor Company agreed to pay $51.5 million to settle claims by states that it misled consumers about the safety of SUVs while failing to disclose known tyre-failure risks. The deal does not affect private legal claims. Ironically Senator Frist is now expected to take the lead in insuring that any awards to victims of SUV accidents such as those he helped in Florida will be capped in future. Since becoming a senator, Frist has crusaded against large awards, particularly for medical malpractice, which is a huge issue with American doctors. Just on Thursday of this week, four West Virginian hospitals transferred patients out of state after more than 20 surgeons walked off the job to protest against rising malpractice insurance premiums. The American Medical Association is lobbying Congress to support a call by President Bush for legislation to cap compensation for pain and suffering in malpractice suits at $250,000.
Critics say, however, that Bush's "tort reform" is aimed more at curtailing the rights of people who suffer from defective and dangerous consumer products. They point to cases like that of Johnson & Johnson, which did not put warnings on its Tylenol bottles that the drug turned poisonous when mixed with alcohol until a trial lawyer secured an $8.8 million judgment, and Playtex, which dismissed studies showing its super-absorbent tampons were causing deadly toxic-shock syndrome until hit by a $10 million verdict. As governor of Texas, Bush championed legislation to cap punitive damages, limit class actions to federal courts and make it easier for judges to impose sanctions for "frivolous" lawsuits. Senator Frist wrote a controversial provision into the Homeland Security Bill, signed by Bush in November, that limits liability for makers of vaccine additives, arguing that the supply of vaccines could well be jeopardised "as we have these huge lawsuits". The clause could result in the dismissal of 800 cases claiming that the mercury-based preservative known as Thimerosal has caused autism in children. This drug was manufactured until the 1980s by Indianapolis firm Eli Lilly, with which Frist has close ties. Eli Lilly bought 5,000 copies of Frist's best-selling book on bioterrorism, though the royalties went to charities.
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TRIAL lawyers who fight for consumers' rights are unpopular in the pro-business White House. In July President Bush claimed that "a badly broken system of litigation" serves the interest "of specialised trial lawyers, not patients". Democratic Senator John Edwards from North Carolina, who on Thursday declared his intention to run for president in 2004, is one such.
Edwards is the Erin Brokovich of Capitol Hill, a trial lawyer who has secured several multi-million damage awards for clients - though nothing as big as the $333 million settlement obtained by Ms Brokovich, played by Julia Roberts in the eponymous movie, over poisoned water in California.
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DEPARTING Democratic House Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri has also decided to make a run - his second - for the White House. Gephardt finished second in the New Hampshire Democratic primary in 1988, but his campaign quickly faded. This time he has laid the groundwork more carefully, portraying himself as a traditional pro-union Democrat with moderate credentials. He worked with Bush on the Congressional resolution on using force against Iraq. The Democratic field now includes Gephardt, Edwards, Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Half a dozen more wait in the wings.
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MORE about "Whitey" Bulger, the Boston gangster mentioned here on December 14th as a cause of embarrassment to his brother, William Bulger, president of the University of Massachusetts. Whitey, now 73, has been on the run since 1994, implicated in over a dozen murders as head of a South Boston gang. The Boston Globe reported yesterday that he was spotted in London in September. FBI officials have since discovered a safety deposit box in a London bank containing $50,000 and a key to another deposit box in a Dublin bank with $10,000. His Irish passport was in one of the boxes, which he last opened in October 1994. The gangster's cover was blown when a British businessman who remembered him as someone he worked out with once in a health club, saw him on a London street. A week later the businessman went to see the movie Hannibal. During the film, Bulger's photograph appeared in a scene showing the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives. The businessman recognised Whitey as one of them and contacted Boston FBI. Bulger ranks just below bin Laden on the most-wanted list.