Bush to Thank Religious Right With Veto -- on Stem Cell Research

How devoted is George W. Bush to his patrons in the Religious Right?

No U.S. president since Thomas Jefferson, who left office in 1809, has gone this far into a presidency without exercising veto power. But Bush is about to use it on stem cell legislation that is bipartisan to the almost ludicrous point of the president being out of step with conservative, anti-choice stalwarts like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Trent Lott (R-MS), who all support the bill.

The Senate began debate yesterday on H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which will expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and open the door to enhanced treatment or cures for a wide array of maladies including cancer, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's.

The legislation would mitigate the limits on federal funding of stem cell research that Bush imposed in 2001.

But a policy statement issued by the White House said that passage of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act would compel "all American taxpayers to pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos for the derivation of stem cells. Should the legislation be presented to the president, he would veto the bill."

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow confirmed that on Monday saying "the administration has released a statement of administration policy expressing a veto threat about H.R. 810, the stem cell bill, that has been cleared and published… We've got a formal veto threat out for it in the form of a statement of administration policy."

"It’s tragic. For six years, President Bush has refused to veto a single bill. But now he’s threatening to issue his first -- ever -- on stem cell research," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in a speech Monday to the 97th annual NAACP convention. "He didn’t veto Republican budgets that cut from the neediest among us and plunged our country hundreds of billions of dollars into debt. He didn’t veto tax breaks for Enron and Exxon, while hardworking families paid more for gas just to get to work or pick up their kids from school. But now, he’s going to veto a bill that offers hope to millions of Americans suffering from cancer, or chronic and other debilitating conditions, such as diabetes, Lou Gehrig’s, or sickle cell anemia."

A vote on H.R. 810 could happen as early as today and it is expected to pass with broad bipartisan support. It's possible it will hit Bush's desk for the expected veto as early as Wednesday and it is highly likely that Congress will fail to override it. While it's very possible that the 67 votes needed to override Bush's veto could be mustered in the Senate, the House is unlikely to rebuke Bush. The bill passed the House in 2005 by a vote of 238-194 and 290 votes would be needed to override Bush’s veto.

What is astounding is that in a 109th Congress marked by a bitter partisan divide, Bush will be vetoing a bill that has brought even the most ideologically-split foes together.

"Science has progressed over the last five years," said Frist in support of H.R. 810 on Monday. "Fewer than the anticipated number of cell lines have proved suitable for research, and I feel that the limit on cell lines available for federally funded research is too restrictive."

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) made an unusually personal speech in the Senate chamber on Monday when he broached the subject of his own battle with Hodgkin's disease and mentioned a 1970 call by President Richard Nixon to strengthen and expand cancer research.

"Without unduly dwelling on my own situation with Hodgkin's -- a year of chemotherapy -- I think had that research been fulfilled, I would have been spared that malady," said Specter, who also commented on the untold number of people who have died of diseases "which could be cured with stem cell research."

Ted Kennedy (D-MA) even invoked the Bible in his plea to Bush to support the life-saving research when it reaches his desk.

"Hope is what stem cell research brings to millions of Americans who seek better treatments and better drugs for cancer, diabetes, spinal injury, and many other serious conditions," said Kennedy. "Hope cannot be extinguished or destroyed, but it can be delayed. In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs tells us, 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick.' And today hearts are sick almost to the breaking point, because for the past five the Bush Administration has shut down the stem cell research program begun at National Institute of Health, and imposed arbitrary restrictions on this life-saving research."

All of this will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears when dealing with a man like Bush, who presided over so many executions while Governor of Texas and yet takes a firm stance on life when it deals with clumps of cells invisible to the naked eye and used less than a week after fertilization.

And there is no shortage of viable cells, with more than 400,000 ready for research at fertility clinics across the country.

Which makes one of the other three bills to be considered this week, Rick Santorum's (R-PA) Fetus Farming Prohibition Act -- which he authored along with his Opus Dei buddy, Sam Brownback (R-KS) -- even more bizarre. The bill would make it a crime to use stem cells (or any other tissue) if the material comes from a pregnancy initiated and terminated specifically to produce tissue.

Brownback quoted Christian writer C.S. Lewis in arguing that the procedure is an affront to human dignity: "If man chooses to treat himself as raw material, raw material he will be."

Of course, with 400,000 frozen embryos waiting in the wings, this isn't a realistic issue to even be addressing and, like Bush's promised veto, it is only being proposed to appease their far-right constituency.

That bill and Specter's Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act -- which simply encourages scientists to search for ways to derive all-purpose stem cells from sources other than embryos -- are also expected to pass the Senate if for no other reason than that they are not very controversial. In addition, not one of the 55 Senate Republicans would dare vote against them.

But the stem-cell news this week will be ruled by Bush and, given that he has been promising this veto for five years, there's very little chance that his pen won’t be used to squash the hopes of many people who have waited for this moment.

"There are so many people who will be watching, who will be hoping, who will be praying that he signs this legislation," said Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

Said Ted Kennedy in his arguments on the Senate floor Monday: "We must cast a vote of conscience and of courage. We must reaffirm that our common value of bringing hope to those who need it outweighs any single ideology, we must approve the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, and we must call upon the President of the United States not to veto hope."

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com.

but he has no problem with that. He knows nothing about common sense.

As soon as I read that it was Rove who announced he'll veto, it was pretty clear...and all political. :puke:

Bush can threaten veto (even with a votes to override it). He keeps his fundie base singing his praises, the Cons get the dual bravo of separating themselves from the President and doing what the American people want, and Democrats...well, they're on the sidelines once again. Bush wins!

This shows how radical W and his supporters are. Moderates are getting turned off big time.

Thrown in the trash is OK but used to help humanity is wrong?

The bushbots are on the wrongside of the issue.

Before he veto's the bill. I would also like for him and anyone else who opposes this research to visit a stem cell lab. Thats the real kicker. Most of the politicals who are against this research haven't even been inside a lab.

I'd love for him to spend a few months being a Type 1 diabetic, as I am, as well. The man has no compassion in his being. :grr:

From someone else with MS, here is a big fat



to Fearless Leader.

Let's lash him (Bush) to an insulin pump 24/7/365 and see how he likes depending on a machine to live!
I'm a Type 1 too, and have been told I am not a candidate for a transplant. My own endo told me that my best hope is for a cure, which will come from this research.
I've never wished a diabetic coma on anyone before, but he's really pushing my buttons on this one!
Hey - any of you 20,000,000+ U.S. diabetics out there want to rally?
He's turning off our last best hope for a cure from this damned disease, and that makes me MAD!
WWJD? He'd find a cure, for one!

Now, there's a thought.

Worse than a pump, make him use NPH and Regular, so that he can experience what the cheapest way to manage the disease is, and let him experience the ups and downs that come with poor management. :mad:

I've been on and off a pump twice, I develop hypertrophy from it, unfortunately. I've never considered a transplant, honestly.

in the Activist HQ forum? That might be a great place to get a rally together! 20, 000,000 would sure make an impact!
:thumbsup:

That's the play. It's a gamble, because the Congress is up for re-election, not the little feller. I think all the Dems have to do is make sure their GOP opponents' votes are known, whichever way they vote. For example, if (my state's up-for-reelection) Jim Talent votes for the stem cell research, he loses fundies, the only people who would vote for this Bush rubber-stamp moron. He'll look like a flip-flopper, and the fundie nitwits will not forgive him. If he votes against stem cell research, moderates of all stripes will be perturbed.

So I think McCaskill just needs to make sure that voters see more than this Rovian "veto" gimmick. They need to see how Talent votes. If the gimmick takes voters' minds off the war, and all the fundies see is that Bush vetoed their way, then Rove wins. But if the GOP blows this play (and I'm betting they do), then it will backfire.

Flag Amendment, Marriage Amendment, stem cell veto..even without the Iraq mess, Bush is one of the worst right wing presidents of all time!

and don't accept him as a legitimate president. How could we.

They're all bad to me, their terms in the White House "victories" of cowards, the ignorant, men of inferior stature and fools.

and U.S. history walked right over him. I think this veto will make history's "Misguided" list as well.

If he doesn't understand it he is afraid of it and it must be a terrorist. Damn you stem cells for the potential cures you threaten humanity with, damn you.

we will "buy" the products of the stem cell research from asian and european companies. usa based companies will go into partnership with foreign companies to market the end products of this research in the usa.

If that's the new rule, here's my list of things I no longer want my taxes paying for (in no particular order):

1. corporate subsidies
2. factory farming
3. Iraq war
4. animal testing
5. Pensions and lifetime benefits for congress and the president
6. Anything "faith-based"
7. Bush's travel, unless it is actually business (like he gets business done, anyway!)
8. Anything that is paid to Halliburton, KBR, etc.
9. The War on Drugs
10. Promoting McDonald's and other crappy American inventions abroad


I'm sure more will occur to me...

...it's funny; the list is sooo much longer on the social side! Careful what y'all wish for. The President should have used his veto power years ago on some of those misguided budgets though, he sure can be a 'tax-and-spend' republican. As for the stem-cell research debate, private companies are entitled to research all they want, this President was the first to release any money for this type of research, even Mr. Clinton wouldn't fund stem-cell research! Maybe if Pfizer could spend a little less to engorge the peni of old men, they could spend more on serious research.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

the first one Bush dedicated to a nationwide television speech when he finally got around to making one. What a fucking douchebag.

Why are the Right-to-Lifers against saving lives?!:sarcasm:

...and ends at birth. Didn't you get the memo?

how inconsistent people are. Either you are pro-life or you aren't. There's no middle ground of "Embryos have a right to life but I think we should use death as a punishment and want to blow people up."

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

The bill specifies that only cells already in in-vitro labs, waiting to be DISCARDED will be used!

How, how, HOW can it POSSIBLY be moral to flush them down the toilet rather than use them to relieve the suffering of countless millions throughout the world?????????

WORST PRESIDENT? SURELY, YES....BUT THE MOST IMMORAL PRESIDENT AS WELL!

AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

THE STUPIDEST PRESIDENT AS WELL!!!!!!!!!!

Then again, would the R's vote to override a Bush veto?