Frist Is Really Sad

Former Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist is building this house (you might see some similarities to another house). it looks like he may not be occupying the real thing after this election disaster, he recently said. How sad that he has to build a replica because he can’t get to the real one. Here is the story: Looking Presidential at Home in Nashville, Whether He Runs or Not In the wealthy Whitland neighborhood here, political signs dot the manicured lawns, but neighbors typically maintain a polite distance, keeping their affairs private behind towering magnolia trees, hedgerows and stone walls. Still, residents and passing motorists cannot help but peer behind the high green fence that screens renovations under way at 703 Bowling Avenue. It is not just the sheer size of the project, which has turned the Georgian Revival house into one of the neighborhood’s largest. Nor is it simply the fact that it is the home of the retiring majority leader of the United States Senate, Bill Frist. After all, Senator Lamar Alexander and former Vice President Al Gore both live nearby. What has neighbors talking is the fact that the family home of Senator Frist, who is often talked about as a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, has taken on a resemblance to the dwelling at another high-profile address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The similarity is so striking that George S. Buchanan, 63, a Republican-leaning neighbor whose home is separated from Mr. Frist’s 4.3-acre property by a street, said, “I live right next door to the White House.” Still, even a cursory comparison of the Frist house and the presidential residence shows that the likeness is far from exact. The Frist home has a peaked red roof, for example, unlike the flat-roofed White House. While the wings on each side of the White House have a flat facade, those on the Frist house are broken up by several tiers and planes. There is a semicircular window above the front entrance of the Nashville home that the one in Washington lacks. And the home on Bowling Avenue, it goes without saying, is still smaller than the one on Pennsylvania Avenue. But there is enough of a similarity that the transformation has become grist for chuckles among locals and out-of-towners alike. Nashvillians are known to drive visitors slowly past the house and point out the resemblance. “When I have friends come into town, I say, ‘Oh, well now, I’ll take you by the Nashville White House,’ ” said Jean B. Butler, 78, a retired federal employee and a staunch Democrat who has lived in the neighborhood for about 60 years. Mr. Frist’s spokeswoman, Amy Call, said the renovation was not planned with the White House in mind but rather “incorporated the original features of the house,” like the tall pillars in front. “Senator Frist and Mrs. Frist wanted to keep the feel of the original home, which for them has many happy memories,” Ms. Call said. Ha ha, they can't even be honest about that. Republican spokesmen and women are hilarious. They just lie and lie and lie. And Frist is just so pathetic.