Wednesday, May 25, 2005

This is what I really want to see:

Now that the House has approved a measure that would use taxpayer funds to pay for unproven embryonic stem cell research, attention turns to the Senate, where the vote will be much closer.

Sponsors of the Senate version of the bill say they have 58 votes to approve the measure. That's more than the 50 needed to pass the bill, but possibly short of the 60 necessary to stop a filibuster by pro-life lawmakers.

Pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican and possible presidential contender, has confirmed he will filibuster the Castle/DeGette bill the House approved Monday....


Is he serious? A filibuster? After all the right-wing outrage about the evil of preventing up-or-down votes? It's a moral outrage to delay the confirmation of a Texas GOP party hack, but it isn't a moral outrage to postpone the day when horrible diseases can be treated or cured, using enbryos that are now just discarded?

Do it, Sam. Please do it. Show the entire nation what your party is made of.

(And yes, I know Bush plans to veto the bill if it passes, and the House majority wasn't veto-proof, so the bill won't become law no matter what -- which means, I guess, that the purpose of any filibuster would be to spare Bush the bad press a veto would generate. That and, of course, the golden opportunity to be a holier-than-thou grandstander.)

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