The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

The fight in the Senate over stem cell research is looming in the near future and Senator Sam Brownback is ratcheting up the rhetoric by threatening a filibuster in the event regulations on stem cell research are relaxed. According to LifeNews:

Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback, a leading pro-life lawmaker, said he thinks he has enough votes to uphold a filibuster against a bill to overturn Bush’s limits.

“These are the ones you just have to state a truth and stand by it,'’ he told Bloomberg News. “It’s human life. And I mean, that has to be stood up for.'’

While this plays well with his religious conserative base, even in Kansas a majority of voters want more stem cell research to occur. You have to hand it to Brownback, it is not easy to be more conservative than the average Kansan.

Also, don’t forget that Senator Sam Brownback hates children with diabetes.

MMMmmmm.  Manimals.  Josh over at Thoughts from Kansas has an excellent discussion of Senate Bill S 1373 which would ban the creation of human - animal chimeras.

Properly speaking, a chimera is a mixture of cells from two sources. CSI fans will remember a case in which a man had two genetically distinct sets of cells in his body, so a DNA test wrongly excluded him as a suspect. That’s a naturally forming human-human chimera (strictly a mosaic, but let’s not get too caught up in terminology). For research purposes, one can put cells from one species (say a sheep) into the embryo of another (say a goat). The product will look like the little cutey right here, a so-called “geep.”

Scientists use these chimeras to study the development of mammals, improving our understanding of our own growth and development, as well as that of commercially important species.

Since Josh is the biologist, I will defer to his knowledge.  Go read his post.

Ahh the jokes keep coming:

Sen. Arlen Specter(R., Pa.) brought down the house at last week’s Washington Press Club Foundation congressional dinner with several examples of low wit, according to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper. Specter told the assembled that Sen. Sam Brownback (R., Kan.) is working on a movie about “two cowboys who go straight and devote their energies to ending stem-cell research.” What’s it called? Brownback Mountain.

Don’t forget those cowboys, like Senator Brownback, hate children with diabetes.

Senator Sam Brownback’s NPR appearance is now available online.  Click on the “Listen” button located near the top of the story page.

Nothing too spectacular in there.  Brownback compared abortion to slavery and denied being interested in a Christian Theocracy in the United States.  He predicted when Roe v. Wade is overturned (he sounded pretty confident) abortion will become a state issue and will be outlawed in many places.

There was no questioning of his stance on Stem Cells and no mention of the theocracy minded group that he is a part of (The Fellowship).

In all, much more sympathetic than the Rolling Stone article.  For many people this was probably their introduction to Sam Brownback the presidential candidate.

As I have previously mentioned, the issue of stem cell research is likely to become a major issue in 2006 and 2008. Frther evidence of this trend is Missouri Senate Candidate Claire McCaskill declairing her intent to protect stem cell research from restriction. From the KC Star:

Taking the wraps on what so far has been a quiet campaign, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill today pledged support for a November ballot initiative that would protect cutting-edge research on early human stem cells in Missouri.

Her opponent, Republican incumbent Jim Talent, is closely allied with the social conservatives on the issue. He is a co-sponsor of a bill by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback that would ban human cloning, including embryonic therapeutic cloning that most researchers see as a key to effective early stem cell study.

This is one area that I think would destroy Brownback on the national stage.  Only the most extreme conservatives oppose stem cell research and even in Kansas the majority of voters support continued scientific inquiry.

All extreme republicans should be wary of this issue.  Standing in the way of curing horrible diseases is not a helpful political stand.

The Heritage Foundation reports on Senator Sam Brownback and US Beef:

Seoul will soon import boneless U.S. beef from cattle less than 30 months old. Although he made it clear that “more needs to be done,” Senator Sam Brownback (R-KA) applauded South Korea’s beef decision, saying that “their decision to allow imports from cattle under 30 months of age is especially appreciated, given that neighboring Japan has ignored science and set its limit at 20 months.”

Now I’ll be the first to admit what I know about the beef industry could fit between two buns, but the Brownback quote jumped out at me for other reasons. Brownback has the audacity to claim someone else ignores science? Let me jump onto my stem cells soapbox.

If he truly believed in science, he would support stem cell research. If he wasn’t blinded by religious dogma he would push exploration into therapies that could help so many people live better lives. You really have to wonder about a person who would let people die long deaths of Alzheimer’s disease in order to prevent cells that were going to be thrown out anyway from being used for science. What principle! What compassion! What a crock of shit.
Always remember: Senator Sam Brownback Hates Children With Diabetes

In the January 16th 2006 edition of Business Week magazine, a Stanford scientist takes Brownback to task for his dark-ages stance on Stem Cell research:

As Stanford University professor Irving Weissman reflects on his lifelong quest to solve the mysteries of cancer, he bristles at the prospect that his work could be outlawed. A bill sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) introduced last spring would make it a crime to place human brain cells in animals. That means Weissman’s work — which involves transplanting human brain-tumor cells into mice — could conceivably land the 65-year-old scientist behind bars.

Weissman, who directs a stem-cell research institute at Stanford and also co-founded a company called StemCells Inc., believes that treatments for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) could emerge from research like his. Experiments on mice with partially humanized brains could shed light on how brain diseases progress. And such animals could provide testing grounds for embryonic stem cells and other methods of regenerating diseased brains. “Tell me, Mr. Brownback, which of these diseases should we not pursue?'’ says Weissman as he points to a list on his laptop. “There are people whose window of opportunity is very brief to get these therapies. As far as I’m concerned, he’s condemning them.'’ [From Lexis Nexis]

I will admit that bioethics is an area in which I do not have much experience. However, I know that genetic disease research is an arms race and if the United States does not lead in this area other countries will. I would much rather have America at the forefront of research that could cure Alzheimer’s and juvenile diabetes than France (no offense to the French). We must not let politics get in the way of science.

Do remember that 70% of Kansans support stem cell research. Politics is all huff and bluff until a relative gets Alzheimer’s.

Never Forget, Senator Sam Brownback Hates Children With Diabetes.

Jesus’ General, everyone’s favorite satirist, made Brownback the subject of one of his letters. You should go read it all, but here is an excerpt:

Dear Sen. Brownback,

You’ve made a lot of progress in your fight to end discrimination against Blastocyst-American citizens. There is certainly less informal discrimination around today–I seldom hear anyone use slurs like “blob” or “goo” anymore. Unfortunately, a more damaging form of bigotry, institutional blastocysism, continues….

Once you’re elected, think about how easy it’ll be to get a Blastocyst-American through the [Supreme Court] nomination process. Just put one of those snowflake babies on the table and it will be the Alito hearings all over again–the Senators can ask questions all day long and they’ll never get an answer. The only sound anyone will hear is Wolf Blitzer’s praise for the frozen embryo’s coolness under fire.

Like I said, read it all. If you don’t read Jesus’ General daily you are truly missing out.

A new poll commissioned by the Kansas Coalition for Lifesaving Cures confirms Senator Sam Brownback’s extreme position against stem cell research is far different from the position held by the Kansas voters he represents. According to the survey:

Pollsters said that Kansas voters approved using stem cells from the somatic transfer process 69 percent to 28 percent, approve of stem cell research from leftover fertility clinic embryos 66 percent to 33 percent, and favor allowing somatic transfer research in Kansas 70 percent to 27 percent.

“The voters’ support of embryonic stem cell research exists both before and after they hear major arguments made by opponents and supporters,” Steeper said.

Who is this Steeper guy? Must be some bleeding heart liberal pinko commie. On the contrary:

The Kansas poll was overseen by Fred Steeper, a renowned Republican pollster who has served President Bush, his father and Presidents Reagan and Ford.

There goes that line of defense.

So how is this issue going to play nationally in the next three years for Brownback? Not well. I have already discussed the impact of stem cell research on the New Jersey Governors race and I continue to believe it will be a defining issue in the 2008 presidential race.

Brownback has a problem. He is more radical than a majority of Kansans. His is toast in 2008 unless he moderates his views.

Never forget: Brownback Hates Children With Diabetes