Bush to Thank Religious Right With Veto -- on Stem Cell Research [View All]

[Bob Geiger]

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 [e-mail].