So the Nashville Tennessean tells us today

Ending an investigation that clouded the tenure of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, federal prosecutors have decided not to file insider-trading charges against the Tennessee Republican for his sales of stock in a family-owned chain of hospitals.

The U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and Securities and Exchange Commission staff last week sent Frist letters signaling that they had closed their joint, 18-month investigation. The letters essentially cleared him of wrongdoing.

Well, whew! Of course the US attorney is a highly respected office, impartially enforcing the law without regard to fear, favor or political affiliation, right? Who is the paragon in the Southern District of New York these days?

Spokesmen for the SEC and Michael Garcia, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment Thursday.

A quick search finds nothing particularly egregious about the guy, but we know he must be a Loyal Bushie on account of he didn't get sacked. See what "politicizing" means, Abu Al? It means that nothing your department does can be trusted. Especially when it involves a Republican getting away with something. Frist now has an asterisk beside his name in the record books, and any future reference (including engravings on his tombstone) will have to include the line "The Republican former senator was cleared of charges of insider trading by the Bush era Justice Department.")

And what was the issue which made HSC HCA stock tank, just by happenstance days after Frist unloaded a big chunk of the little ol' family business?

he said he was unaware of HCA's problems in collecting payments from uninsured patients.

The Tennessean, which is not exactly the tiger of journalistic virtue it was in days gone by, at least has the courtesy to note the question

The former senator fielded questions throughout his political career about the source of his wealth and whether his close ties to HCA influenced his position on health-care legislation and prescription drug prices.

although of course answering, or maybe, gasp, even investigating this question was beyond their grasp.

"Murder By Spreadsheet" is a term which, needless to say, did not make it into the story, and of course such things are not the purview of the SEC.