By Rebecca Adams, CQ Staff

It was one of those times when political ships pass in the night, bound for different ports: Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and transplant surgeon whose hopes for the presidency exceeded his political savvy, announced last week that he would remain out of politics and not run for governor next year. Four days later, the Democrat whom Frist replaced as majority leader in 2003, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, returned from political exile for a confirmation hearing to become secretary of Health and Human Services. He will also hold a post in the White House helping to design and promote the Barack Obama health care overhaul.

When Daschle lost his Senate seat in 2004 — Frist at the time broke precedent and traveled to South Dakota to campaign against him — many thought that Daschle was probably done with politics, following the lead of other top Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who retired in 2004 after his second presidential bid fizzled to become a highly compensated consultant and lobbyist.

Daschle remained active, however, and went to work early for Obama.

“Daschle’s defeat was surprising and difficult for him, but it turns out that the timing wasn’t all that bad, since he’s readied himself in particular by pursuing health policy as a major interest,” says Brookings Institution scholar Thomas E. Mann. “He’s politically alive and well and an important figure. It’s really quite extraordinary.”

Frist, who gained the leader’s post after the downfall of Mississippi’s Trent Lott, never seemed to gain his footing in the job, and he left the Senate altogether in 2006 because he’d promised to stay no more than two terms. Unable to gain momentum in last year’s presidential race, he withdrew before it really began.

Frist is teaching at Vanderbilt’s business and medical schools, serving as a partner in the health care investment firm Cressey and Co., and planning to launch an education initiative. By shunning the governor’s race, Mann says, he has “seemed to signal that his political career is very much over.”