BUSH ADDS ANOTHER DRIP TO THE DRIP, DRIP, DRIP OF REPUBLICAN POLITICAL SUICIDE

An editorial in today's NY Times points out that the babies Bush is charging Congress with wanting to kill in his narrowly partisan veto of the broadly popular stem cell research bill "is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence." They don't mention that the entity may be small but it has the same brain power as the president.

Instead Bush says that he supports research, just not the research that the scientific community wants to do. You see, aside from being a brilliant military leader, a celebrated religious and spiritual leader and renowned ethicist, a sublime diplomat and an economist without peer, Bush is also a medical scientist and researcher with great vision. Didn't North Korea have a leader just like him once?

Mr. Bush knows that most Americans support embryonic stem cell research-- while his political base does not-- so yesterday he sought to at least blunt their dismay by touting new scientific studies focused on deriving potent stem cells from amniotic fluid, placentas and the skin of laboratory mice. Some of the alternative work is indeed promising. But almost all scientists in the field consider embryonic stem cell research the most promising. It is foolish to crimp that research by withholding federal funds to placate a minority of religious and social conservatives, including Mr. Bush, who deem the work unethical.

The Times urges Congress to override Bush's veto. It won't be easy. "The Senate, which has the best shot at overriding the veto, will vote first, in hopes that a victory there will inspire the House to follow. Americans will need to keep a close eye on which legislators favor the most promising stem cell research and which try to impede scientific progress." That is probably not terribly difficult, since it is safe to assume that almost all members with a "D" after their name favor stem cell research and that almost all with an "R" after their name do not. Two important "almosts" there. There were 16 Congressional Democrats-from-The-Dark-Ages cheering Bush's veto and each merits a serious primary based solely on this issue, almost the vast majority of them deserve primaries because they are reactionary assholes who don't support Democratic Party values and principles and don't belong in the Democratic Party at all, at least not as leaders.Although 37 Republicans shunned their idiotic leaders to vote with the Democrats and the American people in favor of the bill Bush vetoed yesterday, the disgraced Democrats should not be forgotten:

Jerry Costello (IL),
Lincoln Davis (TN),
Joe Donnelly (IN),
Brad Ellsworth (IN),
Marcy Kaptur (OH),
Daniel Lipinski (IL),
Jim Marshall (GA),
Mike McIntyre (NC),
Alan Mollohan (WV),
James Oberstar (MN),
Collin Peterson (MN),
Nick Rahall (WV),
Rahm Emanuel's Heath Shuler (NC),
Bart Stupak (MI),
Gene Taylor (MS),
Charles Wilson (OH)

The only genuine Democrat in the whole is Marcy Kaptur; most of the others might as well be Republicans when it comes to crucial issues.

What Bush has done, in reality, is hand the Democrats a potent campaign issue. The next president will decide whether or not stem cell research will go forward. All the Democrats favor it. Each Republican either hysterically opposes it-- at least during primary season when they're courting that 28% of Bush supporters-- or is confused and muddled about it (McCain and Giuliani, the strong leader guys). In fact one of the Republicans who is in sync with most Americans on this issue and who does support stem cell research, Mike Castle of Delaware, told the Times that it is unlikely that progress will be made on the issue until the American people elect a new president. "We’re going to have to wait either for a change of mind at the White House, which seems unlikely unless there are some major medical breakthroughs, or the next president."