Senate Republicans name Frist as new majority leader

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader-elect Bill Frist of Tennessee promised on Monday to help heal the Republican Party and to repair the racial division caused by the party's former leader.

"We must dedicate ourselves to healing those wounds of division that have been reopened so prominently in he last few weeks," Frist said.

Senate Republicans unanimously elected Frist as their new leader during an unprecedented 45-minute conference call among most of the 51-member Senate Republican Caucus, ending a two-week political firestorm that brought down former leader Trent Lott and threatened to derail the GOP's efforts to reach out to minorities.

"I told our colleagues that my intentions are indeed to serve, not be served, so that we together as a group we will be able to capture what is truly remarkable in ... that wonderful institution called the United States Senate," Frist said.

The 50-year-old Frist, a wealthy heart surgeon, officially becomes Senate majority leader when the GOP takes control of the chamber in January.

More than 40 senators participated in the conference call, and elected Frist unanimously with a voice vote, senators said.

Lott, R-Miss., spoke for more than three minutes, and sounded very gracious and thankful -- "as enthusiastic as anyone could possibly sound in that circumstance," the source said. Lott offered to do whatever he could to help the new leadership team, the source added.

Lott thanked everyone for "their support and their prayers," said Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 GOP leader.

But "no one felt good about what's gone on for the last few weeks," Santorum added.

Santorum said the party's top priorities in January will be extending unemployment benefits for the jobless, and finishing the Fiscal 2003 budget. "We are now back on track and ready to move forward in a positive vein," Santorum said.

'We can now focus'

President Bush issued a statement congratulating Frist and saying the Tennessean "has earned the trust and respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said, "With Bill Frist as our new leader, we can now focus our attention on the important issues facing our country."

Frist, who participated in the call from his Nashville, Tenn., office, is considered an authority on health issues in the Senate. He still keeps his starched white lab coat in the trunk of his car, makes monthly visits to hospitals and clinics and goes on occasional overseas medical missions. When the anthrax scare surfaced on Capitol Hill last year, he worked to calm his colleagues.

The election originally was scheduled for Jan. 6 -- when all senators return to Washington for the beginning of the new congressional session -- but several Republican senators wanted to try and put Lott's controversy behind them before returning to the Capitol to work.

Lott lost the confidence of the Senate GOP after remarks earlier this month at a birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., praising the retiring senator's 1948 pro-segregation presidential campaign.

The GOP now is counting on Frist to project the image of a party open to minorities as they prepare to take control of the Senate and confront a host of difficult issues. And with senators still scattered around the country for the holidays, a telephone conference was the only way to get enough lawmakers in one spot to quickly put Frist in place.

Lott, 61, relinquished the job in the wake of severe political repercussions over his racially insensitive remarks earlier this month at a birthday party for Thurmond, R-S.C. Lott apologized several times, but to no avail.

Lott will remain in the Senate, but not in a leadership role. Republican sources said it appeared that Lott, a senator since 1989, had waited too long to end the controversy and lost any leverage he might have had to cut a deal to become a committee chairman.