I don’t often agree with Roll Call editor and Fox News contributor Morton Kondracke, but he’s absolutely right today with his column on Bill Frist and the pending fight in the Senate over stem-cell research funding. As Kondracke put it, Frist can either “save lives or please the right wing.”
The Senate’s stem-cell debate forces a moment of truth upon Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): Is he, at bottom, a doctor and scientist dedicated to saving lives, or just an ambitious politician out to advance his career?
At the moment, the evidence suggests the latter — that he’s working to peel votes away from legislation that would hasten stem-cell research, and in the process give himself and his party political cover.
This was a no-brainer up until very recently. The House already voted overwhelmingly, and on a bi-partisan basis, to undo Bush’s restrictions on federal support for stem-cell research. The measure was poised to cruise through the Senate, again with bi-partisan support. Indeed, the question wasn’t whether it would pass, but whether it would get to a veto-proof 67 votes.
But that was before Frist decided to muddy the waters a bit. Frist, working with the White House, have unveiled five alternative stem-cell bills that would do everything but expand funding where it’s needed. The point is obvious: Republicans recognize national support for the research, but also see the GOP base raising hell in opposition. By pushing hollow alternatives, First wants to give lawmakers cover to, well, vote for stem-cell research before they vote against it. And with 55 Republican senators, all of a sudden, a bill that was a sure-thing is now having trouble.
With a vote coming soon, Frist has a choice.
Frist has saved thousands of lives as a heart surgeon. He means to save millions more as an advocate for worldwide disease prevention and treatment.
Right now, though, he faces a choice: to do what is right and to help millions who might benefit from research he knows is desirable, or to hold it back in the name of personal advancement.
I’m not optimistic. Frist has already shifted sides for political convenience once, and he’s too anxious to make the far-right base happy to switch back now.
Frist’s presidential ambitions won’t suffer by undermining this worthwhile bill, but the countless number of people who could benefit from the research will.