CRIMINALS=COLOREDS, GET IT?:

Democrats who were on the receiving end of that 1994 campaign do not share the smooth and heroic image of Mr. Frist that made him such a compelling alternative to Mr. Lott. Doug Heyl, who was Mr. Sasser's campaign manager, recalls Mr. Frist's 1994 campaign as "a classic anti-Washington campaign with the great Southern code words built in," including allusions to Mr. Sasser sending taxpayers' money to Washington, home of Marion S. Barry, the scandal-ridden black mayor. A spokesman for Mr. Frist said there was no racial significance to that remark.

Mr. Frist also asserted at the time that "for the past 18 years, Jim Sasser has been transplanting your wallets and your pocketbooks to Washington, D.C." His campaign commercials featured the song "The Ballad of Liberal, Taxing, Two-Faced Jim," which included the lyric "You ran up a tab, sent us a bill,/ If the taxes don't get us, the criminals will."

He defeated Mr. Sasser by 14 percentage points, and was easily re-elected six years later. Mr. Heyl said: "It says a lot about you. What will you do to win?"