The Blue State

It's official: Bush to veto science

It's now official.  As I predicted earlier, President Bush will issue the first veto of his presidency -- which will come after the Senate passes a bill that would lift President Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research.  Under pressure from reporters to spill the beans, the White House released a statement:

"He would veto the bill," the White House declared in a written statement, underlining the words for emphasis.

On their web site, the White House released a memo called Setting the Record Straight, which concluded that President Bush's "stem cell policy is working" -- whatever that is supposed to mean!  The memo touted Bush's funding of $90 million towards "approved" forms of stem cell research.

But on the Senate floor today, Majority Leader Bill Frist pleaded with Bush not to veto the bill:

That the number of stem cell lines available under Bush's 2001 limitshas withered from 78 to about one-fourth that number. "These lines arebeing less and less stable," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist,R-Tenn., a physician who opposes abortion rights but supports expandedstem-cell research.

The Senate vote on this bill will take place on Tuesday at 3:45 PM ET.  It is expected to pass, and will be sent to the White House.  After President Bush vetoes it, the bill will go back to the House and Senate where lawmakers will need a super-majority (two-thirds support) in order to override the veto.  As of this minute, they are slightly shy of number of votes needed.

Please let your U.S. House Representative and Senators know that your vote in November will be for the party of science, not the party whose President wants to slow medical progress.

Why you can expect Bush to veto the stem cell bill once it passes

Whether Bush vetoes the bill or not will come down to which Republican demographic Karl Rove thinks is more likely to show up at the polls in November: affluent Republicans or conservative pro-life activists.

Earlier today, I wrote a post about the politics behind this week's Senate vote that would potentially lift President Bush's 2001 ban on embryonic stem cell research.  But what I did not cover in that blog entry was the most important part about the debate this week: whether President Bush will veto the bill once it passes.  Life News, a conservative activist online magazine, was told by a White House adviser that the President will indeed veto the bill.

Many political analysts conclude that a veto would deal his party a huge blow heading into November.  A clear majority of the country, 72% to be exact, supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.  However, some GOP strategists worry that Bush's veto would upset affluent Republican voters, who lately have felt a sense of unease about their party's non-progressive stances on science-related issues.

But still, regardless of all the polls, Karl Rove is making a calculated decision that vetoing the bill is the smartest political move possible -- and no, he is not crazy.  Yes, it is true that this veto will possibly lose the Republicans some voters in November.  But if Bush does not veto the bill, he will be unable to court a majority of Evangelical voters, which strongly supported his reelection in 2004 because of cultural issues surrounding the pro-life movement.  As some black voters feel about the Democrats, many Evangelical conservatives think the Republican Party is taking them for granted.  Because the '06 election may be decided by single-issue voters, this stem cell veto decision is the pro-life activists' way of giving President Bush a litmus test to see whether or not he will act on what he promised loyal conservatives during the 2004 campaign cycle.

Also, if President Bush didn't issue a veto, it would look as if he was overturning himself.  It would also make him look like a weak President -- someone that allows himself to be bullied around by Congress.  We should know the Karl Rove game plan by now.  We have been through this before.  Before each election cycle, Rove wants to make his boss look as strong as possible.  Caving into the Democrats and moderate Republicans on an issue like this would be a concession by the White House that Bush is a lame duck president.

So expect an aggressive President Bush to defy Democrats, moderate Republicans, the scientific community, potential beneficiaries of stem cell treatment, and the vast majority of Americans -- all because he needs those single-issue conservative activists to help raise money and organize voters for the mid-term election in November.

Please e-mail your Senators and U.S. Representative and tell them to vote yes on embryonic stem cell funding.  After President Bush vetoes the bill, it goes back to the House and Senate where it must pass by two-thirds in both chambers in order to override the veto.  If we put enough pressure on our elected officials, anything is possible!

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Other blogs writing about this issue: Issues in Science and Technology, Planet Case, In Effect, Upon Further Review, Political Forecast, The Diabetes Blog, Maine Democrats, The Carpetbagger Report, The Barking Dingo, The Passionate Center, The Crystal Lake Observatory, MyDD, Faithful Progressive, Politics and Policy, The Hutch Report, Pink Dome, Studying Biology and Environmental Science, Swift Speech.

Science and theocracy advocates go toe-to-toe in stem cell debate

For the scientific community, the long-awaited vote on embryonic stem cell research has finally arrived.  Over the next few days, we will find out whether the Senate will successfully repeal President Bush's 2001 law that forbids federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.  If it passes, President Bush will have to make the decision whether to issue his first ever veto as president.  I will discuss the politics of that Executive decision at another time.

But first thing is first: the Senate has a decision to make.  According to the Christian Science Monitor, Republicans and Democrats have agreed on the following rules for debate:

• Debate will start on Monday
• 12 hours of debate
• No Amendments
• Vote at 3:45 PM ET on Tuesday

Even though the bill is expected to pass the Senate, some pro-life interest groups are doing everything they can to stop the bill dead in its tracks, whether by threatening Senate Republicans or by distorting the facts through the invention of their own polling data. 

Early Monday morning, The Christian News Wire issued a press release warning Senator Frist not to support the bill.  The press release said Frist and his Republican allies "can no longer call themselves pro-life and support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research."

LifeNews.com, another opponent of the bill, cited a poll claiming that 57% of Americans oppose funding for embryonic stem cell research.  Of course, the poll was conducted by a group called the Institute for Creation Research, which opposes such medical exploration.  And if you don't recall, the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) is the same group that claims to have found Noah's Arc in Iran.  Realistically, if the anti-stem cell crowd gets their polls from groups like that, then they will have a very difficult time winning the debate.  But according to the most recent Gallup Poll, a more respectable polling agency, 61% of Americans support embryonic stem cell research.

Aside from the electoral aspect of the vote, do we really need embryonic stem cells?  Many pro-life groups contend that adult stems cells are enough.  But as this Reuters report explains, there have been advances with embryonic stem cells, even over the last few weeks:

-- On July 3, a team at the University of California at Los Angelesreported they had transformed human embryonic stem cells into immunecells known as T-cells -- offering a way to restore immune systemsravaged by AIDS and other diseases.

-- In June, a team at JohnsHopkins University in Baltimore transplanted stem cells from mouseembryos into paralyzed rats and helped them walk again. Researchers atthe University of California at Irvine have done similar work usinghuman embryonic stem cells in rats.

And on Sunday, a major medical breakthrough involving embryonic stem cells was reported in India:

A doctor in Gujarat claims he has pioneered a technique of kidneytransplantation using human embryonic stem cells that not onlyovercomes the problem of organ rejection but also cuts treatment costdramatically.

Researchers across the world have been grappling with the problem ofrejection of the kidney transplanted in the recipient. To overcome thissituation, patients are given strong immunosuppressants that leave themvulnerable to infections as they lower immunity.

These medical advances happened recently.  Think of what would happen if this kind of research received federal funding.  Think what it would do to pro-long life and cut the cost of medicine.

This is an issue that invokes a lot of passion, and will be fought hard by both sides.  Expect an interesting next two days.  And if it passes, then expect speculation to heat up over whether Bush will cast his first veto.

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Other blogs writing about this issue: Fight Aging, The Huff Report, Minstrel Boy, Health Law Blog, Charging Rino, Hotline, Indulge Yourself,

Bush might do the Democrats a huge favor

Tuesday is the big day for every patient nationwide that could benefit from embryonic stem cells.  Facing election year pressure, last week House 50 Republicans jumped ship from their party's small tent boat and voted with the Democrats to pass funding for embryonic stem cell research.  The Senate expects to spend Monday debating the bill, and then will vote on Tuesday.

A huge fight could erupt after it passes the Senate because President Bush is expected to use the first veto of his presidency on this issue.  In order to override a veto, the measure will head back the House and Senate where it must pass in both chambers by at least a two-thirds margin.

And what happens if the Democrats don't have the votes to override Bush's veto?  Senator Chuck Schumer explains why the Bush veto itself would be like political suicide for the Republicans heading into November:

Such voters, Schumer said, “don’t like Schiavo,” a reference tocongressional intervention last year in the case of the disabledFlorida woman Terri Schiavo. “And they don’t like creationism beingtaught in the public schools, and they sure don’t like blocking stemcell research. It’s an issue that affects lots of swing voterRepublicans who will move to the Democratic side…. When they knowsomebody who says, ‘My daughter could be blind by age 20, please allowstem cell research,’ they don’t see why not.”

Schumer also added that many affluent Republicans oppose the direction that their party is headed in on this issue.  This could be a huge net plus for Democrats if Bush vetoes the bill.  Will Karl Rove allow that to happen?  We will soon find out.
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Other blogs writing about this issue: Inner Workings of the Abyss, Life in the Convergence, The Gun Toting Liberal, MyDD, Stem Cell Research Progress Blog, Pure Pedantry, 5280 Magazine.