Bill Frist

During his days in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton would have been an unlikely poster-child for healthy heart habits.

But earlier today, the reformed donut-hound and fast-foodie-in chief trekked up to the airy reaches of Washington Heights to deliver a talk on cardiac health -- and to help celebrate the groundbreaking for New York-Presbyterian's new cardiology palace: the Vivan and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center. Mr. Clinton, of course, became the hospital's most famous cardio patient nearly two years ago when he underwent quadruple bypass surgery there. He is now the honorary chair of the steering committee for the new heart center.

Looking trim and, we have to admit, a little bit orange, the former president spoke for roughly ten minutes, during which he "confessed" that he had eaten a bran muffin for breakfast (low-fat, however) and warned against the "explosion of obesity" in this country and New York's "virtual epidemic of diabetes." He also took a few minutes to wonk out on health care policy -- that famously missed oportunity of his presidency.

"I think it's important that we realize that the medical professionals who labor here will, unless we change our ways, labor under enormous burdens because of the complexity and cost of the system we have constructed in America, which leaves huge numbers of people without insurance, spends 34 percent of all health care dollars on administrative costs, doesn't have electronic records, and, as a result of that creates all kinds of financial squeezes for every single serious healthcare provider," he told the crowd of doctors and donors. "No other country in the world spends 16 percent of its income on health care. Indeed, no one spends more than 11 percent, and yet others get as good or better outcomes as we do, because they don't finance their system in the crazy way we do. And we have to do something about that."

Mr. Clinton didn't get to offer much in the way of solutions during his address, but he did make a point of plugging some of his wife's work in this area -- namely, her Electronic Records Bill. Mrs. Clinton recently introduced it alongside another presidential hopeful, Bill Frist.

-- Lizzy Ratner

Eve Kessler had a busy night at the dinner of the Orthodox Union.

She wonders, first of all, why Bill Weld wasn't there when John Faso was. ("Is William Weld running for governor of New York? It seems like he turns down a lot of good opportunities to do retail politics.")

And don't miss her take on Bill Frist's continuing, abysmal poor public performance, which seems to follow him to venues large and small.

Crain's is reporting that the AP is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist wants the President to put on hold the takeover of New York's port operations by a Dubai-based company. -Matthew Schuerman

In December, 2003, Hillary told the Council on Foreign Relations, "I stand by the vote to provide the authority" to go to war.

In the message she emailed out to supporters, widely reported today, she wrote: "I take responsibility for my vote."

You take responsibility for mistakes. And unless she's reminding us that she, and not Bill Frist, physically cast her vote, that's what she's doing there. For the first time.

The Times kind of buried the story, and I'm not sure they or anyone else noted the importance of this shift.  read more »

But this is a subtle, important advance. She's said in the past that, had we known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote. Now, for the first time, she says she should have voted "No."

"[I]f Congress had been asked, based on what we know now, we never would have agreed" to give the president the authority to go to war, she wrote yesterday.

Apprehended again in dubious ethical circumstances, Bill Frist has assured the nation that he is fau  read more »

As of this week, the New York Times is operating under a new stylebook rule: "Dr." is for doctors who are doctoring--not philosophizing, and certainly not running the Senate. Dr. should be used in all references for physicians or dentists whose practice is their primary current occupation, or who work in a closely related field, like medical writing, research or pharmaceutical manufacturing: Dr. Alex E. Baranek; Dr. Baranek; the doctor. (Those who practice only incidentally, or not at all, should be called Mr., Ms., Miss or Mrs.) Anyone else with an earned doctorate, like a Ph.D. degree, may request the title, but only if it is germane to the holder's primary current occupation (academic, for example, or laboratory research). For a Ph.D., the title should appear only in second and later references. The holder of a Ph.D. or equivalent degree may also choose not to use the title. Do not use the title for someone whose doctorate is honorary.

The rule, standards editor Allan M. Siegal wrote in a staff e-mail, is meant "to level the playing field when we write about politics and public life, removing any suggestion of special authority that might attach to people who use a title that isn't relevant to the field in which they are working or competing."

Such as? "There are many examples," Times spokesperson Toby Usnik writes, "including Senator Bill Frist and Howard Dean."

And Henry Kissinger, Ph.D.? Is his title germane to his work?

"The point is mostly (no pun intended) academic," Usnik writes, "since Henry Kissinger always preferred us to call him Mr., and we did. (Condoleezza Rice also prefers Ms.)

"If Kissinger were in government service today, and teaching was not his primary occupation," Usnik continues, "he would be Mr. under our current rule, and we would not ask for a preference."

In fact, a pass through the archives reveals that under the old system, Mr. Kissinger and Ms. Rice didn't always get treatment befitting their modesty. Usage went both ways; even sometimes--for Ms. Rice, under joint bylines--in the same piece.

Number of appearances of selected honorifics in the two years prior to the new rule:

"Mr. Frist" 34 "Dr. Frist" 205

"Mr. Dean" 65 "Dr. Dean" 830

"Mr. Kissinger" 47 "Dr. Kissinger" 3

"Ms. Rice" 400 "Dr. Rice" 20  read more »

"Mr. Erving" 0 "Dr. J" 4

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