Frist's AIDS charity a front for cronyism? It seems so...

[blitzen]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10507590/

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful's nonprofit.

The returns for World of Hope Inc., obtained by The Associated Press, also show the charity raised the lion's share of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources. They gave between $97,950 and $267,735 each to help fund Frist's efforts to fight AIDS.

The tax forms, filed nine months after they were first due, do not identify the 18 major donors by name.

[Warpy]

1. It's more like a money laundering operation

It was illegal to pay several of his campaign aides, so he called them consultants to his AIDS charity and paid them out of that fund. They did no work for the charity. They did work for his reelection.