WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist paid $72,012 from his own pocket to his 2000 re-election campaign fund in August, two months after he was notified that trustees had sold millions of dollars of his stock in HCA Inc., the hospital chain founded by his father and brother.

That Aug. 30 payment was disclosed in Federal Election Commission filings last Friday. The documents also show the campaign fund on the same day paid off a $349,107 outstanding loan from U.S. Bank Corp.

Seriously, do we still need to wonder if he just happened to profit immensely from a timely stock sale, and pay off his entire outstanding debt for the 2000 campaign, setting himself up for a clean slate to potentially run for President in 2008?

But it was a blind trust right?