NYT: Senate Leader Criticized and Praised for Stem Cell Shift

[DeepModem Mom]

Senate Leader Criticized and Praised for Stem Cell Shift
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: July 30, 2005


WASHINGTON, July 29 - Irate that the Senate majority leader had broken with President Bush on the volatile issue of human embryonic stem cell research, conservative Republicans denounced him on Friday, warning that his support for the work could cost him the Republican presidential nomination should he seek it in 2008.

But the majority leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, was also showered with praise - from scientists, advocates for patients and some fellow Republicans, including Nancy Reagan - after he surprised his colleagues by announcing that he would back a bill, passed by the House but stalled in the Senate, expanding federal financing for such studies.

"It is a very, very profound change," Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, said of Mr. Frist's decision. "It's an earthquake."

In defying the president, who has threatened to veto the bill, Mr. Frist was veering to the political center in a year during which he had artfully courted his party's right wing. Just Friday he won passage of a measure shielding gun manufacturers from lawsuits, pleasing conservatives even as he left them feeling jilted by his stem cell decision.

Mr. Frist's counterpart in the House, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, whose relationship with him has been cordial but not close, quickly called a news conference with House Republicans who, like Mr. Frist, are also doctors. Mr. DeLay said a candidate who advocated "creating commodities out of embryos would have a very hard time appealing to the vast majority of Republicans in this country."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/politics/30stem.html?

[LostInAnomie]

1. "a very hard time appealing to the vast majority of Republicans"

So would a person who is against cross burning.

[ovidsen]

4. Dream on DeLay....

I doubt if "the vast majority of Republicans" (ie: those who voted for Bush in '04) is against stem cell research... just as I doubt that "the vast majority of Republicans" favors a total ban on abortions. A substantial number? Yes. A bare majority? Maybe. A vast majority? No.

IMO, the theo-con influence on national policy is overrated. Oh, it's there all right. But it's overrated. These loonybins are not as all-powerful as they think they are, and I like that. It will make their downfall all the more fun to watch.

edit: for grammar.

[dweller]

2. gosh, i'm torn here...

between hoping the rightwing rips him to literal shreds, and then stemcell advances patch him together again.

maybe they can find a way to put a kitten's cell in his heart :shrug: ... providing they can find it.

dp

[Cha]

3. Why isn't delay

getting his own house in order?

<snips>

Here's a scorecard of the key multiplying scandals involving DeLay. Each malefaction is rated on a scale of one to 10 for its stench and the trouble it will possibly cause.

TRMPAC. Stench: 5. Trouble: 8.

In 2001, Tom DeLay helped to set up an organization called TRMPAC (Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee) aimed at helping the Texas GOP gain control of the state Legislature. His goal was to force a redistricting of Texas' congressional districts that would increase the Republican majority in Washington.

DeLay succeeded in sending five more Republicans to Congress. But his tactics created two problems. First, Texas has very strict laws forbidding the use of money raised from corporations in state races, and TRMPAC raised a lot of corporate money. Second, it made for one very shady deal. On Sept. 20, 2002, the director of TRMPAC sent $190,000, including money raised by corporations, to the Republican National State Elections Committee. Exactly two weeks later, that committee sent exactly $190,000 to state candidates favored by TRMPAC. Each transaction, taken alone, appears legal. Bundled together, they look like an effort to funnel corporate money into a race from which it was banned.


And ON And ON and ON..
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116392/

[DanCa]

5. Delay Preaching Ethics?

That's kinda like getting diet tips from Dennis Hasteret.