Frist Tires Of Doormat Treatment From WH - Supports Stem Cell Reasearch

by DemFromCT

If true, this NY Times report has to be one of the oddest twists in the faith-based Administration's determination to do away with reality-based governance.

In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening to veto the measure.

Mr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who said last month that he did not back expanding financing "at this juncture," is expected to announce his decision Friday morning in a lengthy Senate speech. In it, he says that while he has reservations about altering Mr. Bush's four-year-old policy, which placed strict limits on taxpayer financing for the work, he supports the bill nonetheless.

"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," Mr. Frist says, according to a text of the speech provided by his office Thursday evening. "Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified."

Mr. Frist's move will undoubtedly change the political landscape in the debate over embryonic stem cell research, one of the thorniest moral issues to come before Congress. The chief House sponsor of the bill, Representative Michael N. Castle, Republican of Delaware, said, "His support is of huge significance."

Huh. It could be that Frist can't be President without the support of moderate Americans who don't love him for the Terry Schiavo debacle.

The move could also have implications for Mr. Frist's political future. The senator is widely considered a potential candidate for the presidency in 2008, and supporting an expansion of the policy will put him at odds not only with the White House but also with Christian conservatives, whose support he will need in the race for the Republican nomination. But the decision could also help him win support among centrists.

"I am pro-life," Mr. Frist says in the speech, arguing that he can reconcile his support for the science with his own Christian faith. "I believe human life begins at conception."

But at the same time, he says, "I also believe that embryonic stem cell research should be encouraged and supported."

Backers of the research were elated. "This is critically important," said Larry Soler, a lobbyist for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. "The Senate majority leader, who is also a physician, is confirming the real potential of embryonic stem cell research and the need to expand the policy.

It could be that he's tired of being a doormat over John Bolton, who (rumor has it) will be recessed appointed next week despite all his flaws, but that would require either insight or conviction that Frist lacks (which is why he'll never be President). In any case, this is a sweet story to read on the merits, and especially after the syncophant press trumpeting that Bush is no lame duck and his cojones are as big as ever. Uh-huh. If you only watch Fox News.

[UPDATE]: Frist is dissed by Christian Defense Coalition. That didn't take long.

Frist Can No Longer Consider Himself Pro-Life & Vote to Expand Funding for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Comments

[DemFromCT]

see also Plutionium Page's post at Daily Kos.

[emptypockets]

Standing in the way of progress is standing in the way of a freight train. It's not even a moral victory, just a messy clean-up.
--DemFromCT July 23, 2005 10:36 AM

I guess Bill reads TNH.

[DemFromCT]

Heh. Too bad Bush doesn't.

[Mimikatz]

Or maybe he is just hearing from the Pharma and biotech industries that they don't want to see this research allo going overseas. I don't know of a single Republican who would put God over Mammon if push came to shove. (Tom Franks' comments on Brownback on this issue are very funny.)

[emptypockets]

the Pharma and biotech industries that they don't want to see this research all going overseas

It is actually fairly long-sighted of them if they are providing the push! Since the pharma & biotech do not (to my understanding) get federal grants, and aren't directly limited by any of these laws (yet) their only interest is in keeping the US research community strong in stem cell research so they have a talented pool of PhDs to hire from. Even that interest is reasonably selfless, since these companies (unlike say a University medical school) are free to move segments of their operations overseas to where the talent is, if it comes to that.

The real beneficiaries here are the academic US research community, which is a fact I am still in awe about because we are absolutely awful at doing politics and PR. How the hell did this happen?

It certainly wasn't the public being pro-science -- we are faring miserable on most every other front, from things that should be taken for granted (teaching evolution) to things that are more difficult to explain but clearly beneficial to humans (like GM crops).

Partly it was Chris Reeve and Michael J. Fox. Partly it was the fact that, unlike most science, for this one you can bring an adorable 12-year-old girl with an incurable disease to a Senate hearing and say this may help her.

Partly, I think, it was just Bush being so strongly against it, and getting the progressives rallying around it in a reactionary way.

Whatever it was, we ought to bottle that shit because we (US academic scientists) could use a few more victories in the public mind like this one.

[LynChi]

Maybe I am completely off the mark, but the word that stood out to me when Frist announced his support for stem cell research was the word “science.” He said "It's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science."

Well, Hillary mentioned “science” in her speech before the DLC convention. In her speech she imagines a time machine which takes us to the year 2020. She sees where the country will be under a Democrat administration and one thing she says is “ . .. we are funding research in science and technology at the highest level ever.”

Since I as a big believer in science, this grabbed my attention. If Hillary runs for president in 2008, it appears that science will be one of the things on her agenda. This is counter to the “faith-based science” which now dominates the thinking of the Republican party.

That being said, is it just possible that Frist, anticipating running against Hillary, it getting a jump-start by talking about science.

Maybe that is far fetched, but, being the cynic that I am, I have to believe that Frist did not change his mind on principle, but on politics.

[DemFromCT]

Frist doesn't have principles. He proved that to me with Terry Schiavo, and to Dr. Dobsen with his speech today. See, he really can have it both ways.