{"id":4254,"date":"2005-05-20T12:25:05","date_gmt":"2005-05-20T16:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4254.html"},"modified":"2005-05-20T12:25:05","modified_gmt":"2005-05-20T16:25:05","slug":"white-house-wiggle-room-on-stem-cell-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/white-house-wiggle-room-on-stem-cell-research\/","title":{"rendered":"White House wiggle room on stem-cell research?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supporters of stem-cell research believe, despite rhetoric to the contrary, that the president really would sign the Castle-DeGette bill, even though it undoes his 2001 policy, if the legislation reached his desk with bi-partisan support. The trick, as they see it, is finding some “wiggle room” for Bush to offer him some political cover from charges of flip-flopping.<\/p>\n

For example, Michael Manganiello, senior vice president of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, said proponents of the effort are scrutinizing<\/a> Bush’s previous comments “to see if there is room for the president to allow a compromise to his initial policy.”<\/p>\n

It’s possible that Trent Duffy hinted at some wiggle room yesterday.<\/p>\n

Subbing for Scott McClellan, Duffy ran yesterday’s press gaggle<\/a> aboard Air Force One, and was asked what kind of response the White House was preparing in advance of the Castle-DeGette bill. Duffy said:<\/p>\n

“The President’s stem cell research policy is very clear. He was the first President to authorize embryonic stem cell research in 2001, under a principle that human life should not be created for the purpose of destroying it<\/b>. And he continues to stand firmly behind that principle. And I would note that there has been tens of millions of dollars spent on embryonic stem cell research at the federal government under this President and under his policy. So that’s where he stands on that, and he continues to stand behind his policy.” (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe Duffy doesn’t fully understand the White House position on this, or maybe he was offering the wiggle room proponents are hoping for, but the principle Bush has held is not<\/em> limited to embryos “created for the purpose of destroying” them; it’s a limit on research on all embryos.<\/p>\n

But if Duffy’s right, and his response yesterday is the White House policy, then we’re in luck. The Castle-DeGette bill centers on using embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics that otherwise would be discarded — and the bill does not permit embryos to be created specifically for the purpose of medical research. In other words, the legislation is completely in line with Bush’s principles, at least as they were articulated yesterday.<\/p>\n

For that matter, if Bush is looking for an excuse, maybe he’ll be motivated by the fact that the South Koreans have taken the lead<\/a> on stem-cell research. It seems to me there was a time when the United States was the world leader on scientific research, before the religious right held veto power over the president’s domestic policy agenda….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supporters of stem-cell research believe, despite rhetoric to the contrary, that the president really would sign the Castle-DeGette bill, even though it undoes his 2001 policy, if the legislation reached his desk with bi-partisan support. The trick, as they see it, is finding some “wiggle room” for Bush to offer him some political cover from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}