“In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening to veto the measure,” reports the NYT.
Washington wags and cynics have already begun their search for 2008 presidential political angles, but those who know Frist best — and reporters who actually listen to him and watch closely — see this decision as one of thoughtful principle and science, not politics. […]
[H]e’s been working on this speech for about a month. According to an aide, the date prohibition on the President’s plan has, in the view of the Senator, unfortunately “crabbed research.” […]
Sen. Kennedy applaud[ed] the Frist decision and Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) call[ed] the policy Frist is now supporting “morally reprehensible.” (ABC’s The Note)
Glenn Reynolds at INSTAPUNDIT: “I’m with Frist.”
WILL BUSH VETO the bill? More below + a POLL:
A White House aide this morning tells ABC News, “the President was aware of the position Sen. Frist was going to take today on the issue…. The President believes that the federal government should use taxpayer dollars for stem cell research on lines that we have previously specified. There is really no such thing as ‘an embryo that would be discarded anyway.’ No woman/couple is forced to discard an embryo if she wants to donate to research. There are plenty of private sector research options that she could turn to.”
“I’m doing this as somebody who has convictions,” Frist told Good Morning America. “This is not about politics. It is about policy. It is about principle. It is about human life.” […]
According to an aide, the Senator “has been thinking about this issue a lot during the spring, has been talking with experts scientists colleagues and ethicists over the past few months, has read much of the research, listened and worked with colleagues and was reaffirmed in his conviction that now was the time to speak strongly and clearly about his principles and what they meant in legislative practice.”
[…]
You will hear some Democrats seek to portray Sen. Frist as wishy-washy — he defended the President at the Republican convention in 2004 on stem cells, and the Frist pushback will be a 2001 speech where he endorsed research from discarded blastocysts. Other Democrats will cheer him, and the pro-research media will be ga-ga over the shift. (ABC’s The Note)
Wow, Frist grows a pair. Perhaps that should be the subject of research, spontaneous generation of testicles.
Would this research be widely available?
Only on videotape at a store near you, Frist prefers that format.
Frist does nothing without the OK of the president. What the reasons could be for him doing this are varied. They decided it was needed to set him up for a run for president? Bush wants to back down on stem cells and he is using Frist to do that? It is a ploy while they are doing something else. This admin goes to great lengths to do their stuff and I have no idea what they are doing this time but the day Frist puts principle over politics is the day of the second coming. This is the man who made medical miracles diagnosing Terry Shivo from a video tape. What ever it is, stem cell research is only a means to some other ends.
I agree, they made a deal. Bush vetoes and they both look like they stood on their principles.
I don’t trust anything that comes our of this administration’s mouth. Everything has a political purpose. While people are heaping accolades upon Frist for his break with Bush, I ask myself “What’s the hidden agenda?” What does Rove have to do with this? What is the ultimate game plan? I know I am being cynical, but after being lied to by this administration over and over again, I distrust this sudden conversion by Frist. When has he ever stood on principle? He has always done the bidding of the White House. Why should he change now?
Decision of thoughtful principle and science? Since when did any of that matter to Frist? The lame duck goes limping off and the world is upsidedown as Bush slips in the polls to something that resembles hell frozen over and the Bush gang who has plans for their future struggles to reinvent themselves. Sometimes there is desperation and then sometimes there is just pitiful……at least it’s interesting, this really is popcorn and recliner time for WWF Smackdown.
I’ll bring the popcorn. This show gets better and better every day. It’s lucky I’m not a Senator, ther’s no way I could keep myself from using the word bullshit in public. Frist’s honor disappeared the first time he dissected a kitten he adopted from a shelter.
He’s stood up to Dubulya, this Frist!
On stem cells, he’s raised up a fist!
It’s going to be neato,
Dub threatens to veto…
Who’s politically slitting whose wrist?
That’s exactly what Frist’s PR folks are looking for “he stood up to W.”
With Bush losing clout even inside his own party, Republicans are likely to reward the candidate who can do the best job of explaining that Emperor W has no clothes, without making them feel like idiots for supporting the guy this far.
Republicans have walked way, way, way out on a limb in the last four years, following Bush down a road that tramples American principles in the muck. They’ve only started to realize this. Most of them would like to get back, if they can do so without admitting they made a mistake.
So. How long will it take for his WH handlers to convince him that he’s mistaken?
It’ll be interesting to watch as the Republicans start to scramble for 2008.
When Gore ran in 2000, Clinton still had high poll numbers, and still Gore was advised to distance himself from the president. With Bush slowly sinking into the mire, it might be expected that Republican prospects for 2008 will be feeling even more pressure to create some space between themselves and W.
This is an issue where Frist looked at the polls long enough to determine that even most of the Republican base was against the Bush position. I’m assuming he thinks he has enough “cred” with the Right to make this gesture to the middle — even though that gesture is clearly a middle finger raised to Bush.
Now that Tom Delay has spoke out against Frist and in support of the Bush position, it will be interesting to see how the Republicans start to break. I expect that a few Republicans — mostly though not interested in the White House for 2008, will move along with Frist and breath a sign of relief at getting some cover. Others who are looking at the Big House will probably make a show of sticking with the Anti-Stem Cell crowd and look for another issue they can call their own.
This is exactly what I said to my husband as we watched the news. Frist is trying to look less wacky and to distance himself from Bush’s plummeting poll numbers.
When he runs, I want MoveOn. to run a continuous loop of him trying to explain to George S. that HIV might come from tears.
Perhaps there are enough pro-stem cell research GOP to force Frist to have a vote on this, so Frist “changed his mind” in order to stave off a revolt of sorts from his caucus.
just a thought.