Bill Frist Will Not Run for President

The AP is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has announced he will not run for the White House. Here is his statement:

In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close. I do not intend to run for president in 2008.

Not very illuminating.

Once regarded as a likely front-runner, Frist saw his prospects diminish as a result of the embarrassing Terry Schiavo episode (a doctor, Frist purported to assess Schiavo's medical condition based on watching a short video, declaring her to have mental function that the eventual autopsy disproved categorically), and an investigation into a possible ethics violation involving securities that he owns. His tenure as Senate Majority Leader has not been wholly successful, either, with many regarding him as having been outmaneuvered by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on numerous occasions.

Although they have not issued definitive statements about it, vanquished U.S. Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and George Allen (R-VA) are regarded as other potential 2008 presidential contenders whose misfortunes have undercut their chances. Seeing ample running room to the right of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY), other potential candidates like Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), and even Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) are actively exploring presidhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifential bids.

CORRECTION: Hunter has officially declared his candidacy. MyDD.com reports today that Romney has picked out his national campaign headquarters already.

UPDATE: Hotline has more, including this enigmatic further statement from Frist:

“We are ready to return to Nashville and private life. We will seek the best opportunity to serve mankind. We will stay actively involved in formulating innovative solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems that face Americans every day -- high cost of health care, energy dependence, the threat of radical Islam. I may return to what I’ve done for most of my adult life: heal through medicine (the way I saw my dad serve since I was a little boy riding around with him, his black doctor’s bag tucked between us, as he’d travel the neighborhood making house calls). I, of course, will immediately resume my regular medical mission trips as a doctor around the world to serve those in poverty, in famine, and in civil war. That is where my centeredness is fueled.”

Civil war? THAT civil war?