When Bush first publicly threatened to veto the Castle-DeGette stem-cell legislation, the idea was the power of his warning would intimidate the House to back down. It didn’t work — 50 House Republican joined 187 Dems in passing the bill.
So Bush tried again yesterday, insisting that he’s inflexible about supporting the potentially life-saving research. And once again, the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t care.
Naturally, Dems are anxious for progress on the issue, and Harry Reid called yesterday for a “swift vote” on the legislation. But it’s not just Dems. Orrin Hatch, whose record for virulent opposition to abortion is unquestioned, is pushing the legislation in the Senate aggressively, saying he “respects” Bush’s concerns, but vowing to continue to show Republican lawmakers that “it is possible to be both anti-abortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research.”
The most forceful and assertive GOP opponent of Bush’s policy is Arlen Specter — in part because he has a personal interest in the issue.
Sen. Arlen Specter, newly bald from chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin’s disease, held himself up on Wednesday as Exhibit A for the possible benefits of embryonic stem cell research.
A day after the House voted to overturn President Bush’s prohibition on federal funding for research using cells from human embryos fertilized after 2001, Specter said similar action by the Senate would give hope to himself and others with Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and cancer.
The Pennsylvania Republican called Bush’s promise to veto any relaxation of his restrictions on funding stem cell research an affront to millions of people with diseases that might be treated or even cured with federal dollars propelling the science.
“I look in the mirror every day, barely recognize myself,” he said. “And not to have the availability of the best of medical care is simply atrocious.”
Indeed it is. The question now becomes how proponents should proceed.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has vowed to filibuster the bill if it reaches the Senate floor. Supporters say they have more than enough votes to defeat the filibuster. The more important question is what to do about a veto. Specter told the president yesterday that they can beat that, too.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican and chief sponsor of a bill to expand federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research, issued a stark challenge to President Bush on Wednesday, saying he had enough votes in the Senate to override a presidential veto of the measure.
“I don’t like veto threats, and I don’t like statements about overriding veto threats,” Mr. Specter said, speaking at a news conference where the House backers of the measure presented him the legislation, which passed the House on Tuesday, topped with a red bow.
“But if a veto threat is going to come from the White House, then the response from the Congress is to override the veto, if we can,” Mr. Specter added. “Last year we had a letter signed by some 58 senators, and we had about 20 more in the wings. I think if it really comes down to a showdown, we will have enough in the United States Senate to override a veto.”
But before that can happen, the bill needs to come to the floor — which means the onus may soon shift, once again, to Bill Frist. If he allows a vote on the legislation, the far right, which is still a little peturbed about the whole “nuclear option” thing, will be even more upset. If Frist blocks the bill, proponents will probably attach the bill as an amendment to one of the Senate’s must-pass measures. Supporters of the bill could conceivably use a discharge petition to circumvent Frist — making him appear weak and hapless, again — to bring it to the floor anyway.
In the meantime, it’s hard not to like the politics of this. Here’s a proposal that has broad, bi-partisan support, is popular with every segment of the public, and which Bush and the far-right Republicans are clearly in the wrong. I think Mark Kleiman described this well:
Perfect. Just what we need. Take an issue where public sentiment is clearly with the Democrats, and set it up so the radical conservatives of the Texas Republican Party are standing between sick people and miracle cures. Exactly the right issue for the 2006/2008 elections: science and health v. fanaticism.