Fristing America

The metrics of the highest ranking American legislator's savvy investing:

Minimum number of days between putting this stock in a blind trust (implicitly acknowledging the conflict of interest of controlling this stock) and "'ma[king] a conscious decision to divest himself of all HCA assets' so he could pursue an ambitious agenda of health care legislation free of any appearance of self-interest.": 3467

Number of days before the stock fell that he instructed his trustee to sell: 25

Number of days after all the stock was sold that the "unexpected" news of HCA's poor earnings was announced: 5

Amount stock went down (as a percentage): 9

Amount it's gone down since then (as a percentage, as of this writing): 8

Reasons for suddenly intervening: 0

Number of board members who are Bill Frist's brother: 1

Number who are Glenda Hatchett of TV's Judge Hatchett: 1

Number of senior executives who sold significant holdings in a 3-week period just prior to the dip: 7

Amount they unloaded (in shares): 574,882 (in dollars): 19,942,610

Best quote (from Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21):

"The notion that you have a blind trust but you can tell your trustee when to sell stock in it just doesn't make any sense. It means you have a seeing eye trust and not a blind trust. It's ridiculous."