When Bad Congressmen Do Good Things

I will be the first to admit that I never thought I would see this happen in the GOP controlled House or Senate. A bill has passed in the House that will, as previously discussed, open up new lines of embryonic stem cells for government funded research purposes.

After impassioned debate, the House passed a controversial bill Tuesday that would expand public funding for embryonic stem cell research -- a measure President Bush threatened to veto last week.

The vote was 238-194, short of the two-thirds supermajority of 290 necessary to override a veto. The measure now goes to the Senate.

The House then overwhelmingly passed a Republican-backed proposal that would use federal money to study stem cells taken from adults and umbilical cord blood, instead of using human embryos.

Amazingly, 14 Democrats voted against the ebryonic stem cell bill. We'll have to do some digging and find out which idiots those were. Still, even all fourteen of them wouldn't make up the 290 needed to overcome a veto, since 180 hypnocrist Republicans voted against it.

Of course, Dear Leader can't lead the fight against progress in the legislative branch by himself. He'll need some sort of stooge to stand up for the Flat Earth Society on his behalf. Hrmmm.... who could he get? Cue the Bugman, please.

Majority Leader Tom DeLay said before the vote it would be wrong for the government to finance "medical research predicated on the destruction of human embryos."

"An embryo is a person," the Texas Republican said.

"This bill tramples on the moral convictions of an awful lot of people who don't want their tax dollars to be spent for killing innocent human life," DeLay said.

Not even all of the Republicans were drinking the Koolaid yesterday, though.

At least one GOP member took issue with such a view.

"To reduce this issue to an abortion issue is a horrible injustice to 100 million Americans suffering the ravages of diabetes, spinal cord paralysis, heart disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, cancer, MS [multiple sclerosis], Lou Gehrig's disease and other fatal, debilitating diseases," said Rep. Jim Ramstad, a Minnesota Republican.

"What could be more pro-life than working for a cure for a loved one?" asked Rep. James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, another of the bill's 200 co-sponsors, who suffered a spinal cord injury at age 16 and cannot walk.

Rep. Mike Castle, the Delaware Republican who introduced the bill, said it "draws a strict ethical line by only allowing federally funded research on stem cell lines that were derived ethically from donated embryos determined to be in excess."

Much like the Terri Schiavo case, I'm actually almost hoping that Bush does veto this. Americans seem very clear on where they stand regarding this issue, and Bush would just be shooting the hypnochrist theocons in the foot yet again if he does.

A poll released Monday shows Bush does not have the support of the majority of Americans when it comes to government funding of stem cell research.

Forty-two percent said the federal government should ease restrictions on funding research, and another 11 percent said there should be no restrictions, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,006 Americans surveyed over the weekend.

Nineteen percent said there should be no funding of such research -- an increase from 14 percent in a poll conducted last year.

There you go, all of you Bush lovers. Do you have any relatives, friends or neighbors with one of these debilitating diseases? Well, here's your boy fighting progress yet again. All in the name of catering to the evangelicals. You wanted Bush, and now you've got him. Enjoy.