by DemFromCT
As we take a few days off from the overheated Senate, and as eyes focus on family and other things closer to home on this holiday weekend, I wonder whether the local headlines are a harbinger of things to come nationally.
Massachusetts - What would a stem cell veto look like?
Governor Mitt Romney will appear on a Sunday television news show this weekend to explain his battle with legislative Democrats over his opposition to cloning of human embryos for stem cell research.
Romney, who has gained national acclaim from conservatives for his stance, will appear on ''Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" along with former NFL star Boomer Esiason, whose son has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease.
Romney supports stem cell research, but objects to cloning human embryos to further that research.
He has vowed to veto a bill passed by the Legislature that removes any legal ambiguities over embryonic stem cell research in Massachusetts.
Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director, said yesterday that the Fox show reached out to him, not the other way around.
The other piece of the brave Governor's stance (which represents few constituents in MA, home of MIT's Whitehead Institute and Harvard's new Stem Cell Institute) is the certain veto over-ride by the legislature, which has the votes. MA is the home of same-sex marriage, and soon to be the home of state-funded stem cell research (joining CA). By the way, lack of federal funding hurts US research efforts, and this Wall Street Journal idea of privately funding the research is junk economics, similar to the junk science of substituting adult stem cells for the real pleuripotent deal. Bait and switch is a Bush staple, just as much as 9/11 scare tactics are.
Sen. Frist should closely watch Romney's Fox News performance touting his failures to do anything substantive as a roadmap for his own efforts to establish his social conservative credentials. Frist's performance this week in the Senate, with stem cells to come, is potentially similar.
Jaded pundits (even on the left) will say that Romney and Frist, like Bush, 'stands' strong' and this will endear them to their base. This may be true, but the base in not nearly the majority, and 'standing stubborn' does not play well with the moderate middle (who outnumber both liberals and conservatives in this country, and still decide elections) when the people are denied what they want. Watch how this plays out in MA for clues as to how it will play in DC.
Connecticut - What would stem cell support look like?
The State of Connecticut is moving to commit $100 million over the next ten years for stem cell research. The Senate has overwhelmingly approved the bill. Now it's onto the House and Gov. Jodi Rell says she will sign it.
Rell, the moderate R Governor who signed the recent civil union bill without a fuss is the anti-Romney in the Republican party.
Gov. Rell first proposed state funding for stem cell research back in January. She had proposed $20 million. This bill goes a good deal further. It will make Connecticut among the first states to do so, preceded only by New Jersey and California.
"Stem cell research is an opportunity for us in Connecticut to utilize our top notch universities," the governor said. "Certainly we have the University of Connecticut and Yale University, research universities that have bragging rights among the nation's finest."
When asked why she would sign this bill when President Bush has vowed to veto a similar bill before Congress the governor said she doesn't ask the White House for advice.
As has been previously written, this is a no-brainer for Democrats and an obvious choice for Republicans with brains. There's no question
as to where the public stands. Any politicking on the issue should
highlight the difference between CT and MA... after all, this isn't a
partisan issue, is it?
Ohio - What would one-party rule lead to?
What if you had all the judges in addition to the legislature and the state house? Well, when the inevitable corruption surfaces, you'd have trouble finding judges untainted by scandal to do their job.
Democrats have tried to turn the missing coins into a morality tale about the dangers of one-party government. Indeed, in Ohio it is hard to find anyone responsible for government problems who is not a Republican, since Republicans control not only the governor's office, but also the Legislature, the attorney general's office, the Supreme Court and the state auditor's office.
"One-party rule has made the Republicans much more sloppy in their corruption," said State Senator Marc Dann, a Democrat.
But the scandal has also jolted the Republican Party simply because Mr. Noe, thanks to his energy, charm and sheer fund-raising prowess, has helped or befriended just about every prominent Republican in the state. Mr. Taft, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits, received about $20,000 in donations from Mr. Noe and his wife over the past decade.
The three Republicans trying to replace Mr. Taft in next year's election - Auditor Betty Montgomery, Attorney General Jim Petro and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell - have all received thousands of dollars from Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, in recent years, according to state campaign records. All three have opened audits or investigations into Mr. Noe's coin funds or campaign contributions.
And those Republican judges who also received campaign money from the Republican insider who stole $13 million?
Even the state's highest court has been touched by the case. When a series of lawsuits seeking an inventory of Mr. Noe's coin investments was brought before the Ohio Supreme Court recently, five of seven justices recused themselves. All had received campaign contributions from Mr. Noe.
As a result, the lone Democrat on the court will preside over the cases and has selected five other judges to stand in for her Republican colleagues.
Some day, there'll be a Democratic branch of government in DC. Until then, stalling and stonewalling and an indifferent press will just have to keep Ohio as a cautionary tale. But Dems won't be in the minority forever. And then...
A preview for the CountRy, I presume you mean.
One thing we learned in the last election is the value of active local and state parties. Influxes of volunteers can't overcome a strong locally based effort. These kinds of issues can serve as a rallying point for state and local efforts.
The stem cell debate is particularly good not just because it is right and the public is with us, but because it highlights the anti-rational, anti-science character of the radical religious right and their allies. Most Americans care about the jobs and scientific leadership this endeavor will bring as well as the promise of relieving diseases. The junk science and illogic of the Bush/Romney/Dobson position is a paradigm for the kind of blinkered thinking the right falls into over and over.
Corruption as the inevitable product of one party rule is a useful theme too. But while a pitch for divided government will work in 2006, we will someday want it all too. Therefore, I think the key on the GOP and corruption issues is who the party really cares about--a party that sees government as a vehicle for rewarding the already rich and powerful is more dangerous when it gets absolute power than the party that cares about the little guy. The key is who each party cares about and who it takes care of. This is the distinction we must always draw when hitting on both the absolute power and corruption themes. The middle class and working classes need to feel that the Dems will look after their interests (and not at the expense of each other).
Posted by: Mimikatz | May 28, 2005 at 11:24
you mean Chicago vs Enron? ;-)
All politics is local... never truer... and there's a lot to be geleaned from this.
In coming months, we at TNH plan to spend more time looking at local and state issues to the extent we can.
Posted by: DemFromCT | May 28, 2005 at 11:31
Corruption and the arrogance of power is shaping up to be one of the Dems' main themes for 2006, but on the issue agenda, stem cells have to rank high. It's science vs going backward, and with the middle that resonates a heck of a lot more strongly than religious ideas about how stem cell research is killing babies.
Posted by: DHinMI | May 28, 2005 at 13:14
it touches everyone... who doesn't have a relative or a friend with Alzheimer's, diabetes, etc...?
Posted by: DemFromCT | May 28, 2005 at 13:59
Perhaps a Minnesota Report is in order:
Friday business of the special legislative session stopped suddenly when Military Officers arrived to tell a leading DFL Senator that her son had been killed in Iraq. If you remember this week the Helicopter shot down North of Baghdad -- well Becky Lourey's 41 year old son was pilot. About 80% of the State Budget is still undecided because the Republican House and Governor and the DFL Senate have not reached agreement on major tax and program items. Bucky is a Farmwife from NE Minnesota, she raised 12 children, and got into state politics the year Paul Wellstone ran for the US Senate. She ran for enndorsement for Governor in 2002, came in second, and was planning to run again in 2006. She is a strong progressive. Many of us think this is the first case of an elected official to lose a son or daughter in Iraq. The whole Lourey Family is opposed to the Iraq war. The DFL Senate Leader who is also Chaplain for the State National Guard, Dean Johnson just shut the session down and told everyone to go home.
On a lighter note, it looks like next week Colleen Rowley will officially announce that she is running for DFL Endorsement for the 2nd Congressional District, currently held by John Klein. Rowley if you remember is the FBI agent who took whistleblower status and outed the DOJ and Muller cover-up of the Moussaoui pre-911 arrest and stalled investigation. She then became TIME Woman of the Year, and retired from the FBI last year. The district trends Republican by perhaps 4 points -- but I think Colleen fits the district well (Suburban-rural S-Central Minnesota), and she should have a decent chance. Look for formal announcement next week, but AP already has it, plus an interview.
Posted by: Sara | May 28, 2005 at 22:56