It’s hard to keep a good bill down

June 16, 2005

Speaking of bills Bush doesn’t want to see on his desk, it sounds like we’ll be seeing progress on federal funding for stem-cell research in the Senate fairly soon.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Wednesday he hoped to have a vote within a month on the controversial issue of expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Despite President Bush’s veto threat, the House last month easily approved legislation to expand federal funding for stem cell research using excess embryos from fertility clinics. Senate backers of the bill say they have a solid bipartisan majority and want a vote soon in the Senate.

Frist, a physician, said he agrees with Bush’s 2001 limitations on the research but also said, “It is time, with advancing science, that we review where we are, review not just the president’s policy, but where is science today.”

Is it me, or was that part at the end of a subtle shot at the White House? Frist seemed to be saying that lawmakers have to do what lawmakers have to do — and Bush’s position won’t necessarily matter.

Regardless, the question on the floor won’t be whether the bill can get a majority, but rather how big will the majority be? Some sponsors are hoping to generate 67 votes (or more) to signal a veto-proof majority, which Arlen Specter believes he has.

Several Dem aides said they expect a vote soon after the Senate returns from its July 4 recess. Stay tuned.

I think we can expect a bit more of this as Frist and other republican senators maneuver for the nomination in 2008. Bush is a dead (not lame) duck at this point, is of dubious value politically to them, and is largely out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans. They’ve got bigger concerns these days than pleasing the administration.

  • Actually that would be federal funding for EMBRYONIC stem cell research. People make it sound as though this president is not for stem cell research when he has invested more in stem cell research than any administration in history…it is EMBRYONIC stem cell research that is the sticking point. People are very willing these days to believe rhetoric designed to exploit perceived weaknesses in administration policy. I think their weakness is their inability to articulate their position and the press’s willingness to print anything that seems it might damage Republicans.

  • he has invested more in stem cell research than any administration in history

    And for just how much of *history* has anyone been doing any kind of stem cell research whatsoever? Come on, Bob, that talking point was dead when it was hatched months ago.

  • Mr. Bob,

    Bring some real thoughtfulness to this site, or you will (appropriately) get hammered. Thanks Dindsdale and Ed!

    In case you are new to this site and this debate, Mr. Bob, EVERYONE knows that this issue deals with EMBYONIC stem cell research; that is a given. The grafs set forth in this post make it clear that we are discussing excess EMBYOS, not excess ADULTS. See, Mr. Bob, we get it that the battle is over federal funding for research using material from embyos.

    As far as the media printing anything and everything that “damages Republicans,” you seriously need to spend less time trolling at some progressive sites and instead more time reading and paying attention. Anyone who believes what you spout must be making seriously determined efforts to ignore reality. Just look at the sad state of the New York Times, the national paper of record, and their abject calumny regarding the Downing Street Memo and their pathetic excuses for failing to cover it (the fact that Judith Miller is still employed there is Exhibit A to refute your ridiculous charge).

    Besides, Mr. Bob, your umbrage at the media is most likely the result of the old adage: the truth hurts. The truth is that Rethugs are hurting America, making it far less safe from terrorism, far less secure in our personal liberties, and falling further behind in our economic security and opportunity. The only way Rethugs stay in power is to lie, distort, and abuse that power.

    As a simple aside regarding the mendacity of the Rethugs, how is that Bush blames his political failures on the Dems when in fact the Rethugs control the House, the Senate, the White House and ALL of the executive agencies, the federal judiciary, and the majority of state Governorships and Legislatures? I’ll give you a hint, Mr. Bob: it’s because Rethugs want to rule (like Kings and other monarchs and dictators) rather than govern (as in a representative democracy) — Exhibit B is Rep. Sensenbrenner’s violations of Rule XI and elephant-in-the-china-shop behavior at the House Judiciary Hearing called by the Dems last Friday, June 10, 2005 (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you confirm your troll status).

    Glad to have you visit us, Mr. Bob, but serious discourse is practiced here. If you want to use honest debate, intellectual rigor, and real facts and analysis, please stay. But be ready to play tackle football; the rest of us don’t play touch or flag versions.

  • At one point, however, ABC misstates the facts. They should have said, “Frist, who plays a physician on TV … “

  • Wow! If I could only articulate as you do Analytical Liberal. I couldn’t have responded better to that basket of nonesense! Mr. Bob, check your EMOTIONS, not your BRAINS, at the door before coming into the Carpetbagger Report zone again!

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