The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

In the New Jersey Governor’s election, Democrat John Corzine convincing trounced Doug Forrester in a race that was hailed by pundits as a possible sign of future republican electoral troubles. While this race was interesting on many levels, I think the most important landmark event was Democrat John Corzine’s usage of stem cell research as an effective wedge issue. The TV ad with a quadriplegic talking about stem cell research was devastatingly simple and to the point. Plus, it garnered a ton of free media coverage.

There were no public exit polls in NJ, so the exact effect of the stem cell push may never be known. However, based upon conventional wisdom I think conservative republicans should be scared. Senator Sam Brownback especially should be aware that his opposition to stem cell research could sink his campaign.

Brownback’s position on the issue is indefensible. Few people when faced with the choice of incinerating an embryo or using it for life saving research would choose incineration on principle. Senator Sam Brownback’s insistence that stem cell research is a matter of “life” is correct. It is a possibility for millions of Americans to live better lives.

Brownback, and every other republican who opposes stem cell research should be scared. If an anti research republican runs in 2008, s/he will be decimated with ads on the issue. The Corzine strategy is only the beginning. Democrats will stand up for the millions of Americans who need these treatments. We will not let religious dogma cause them a lifetime of pain and agony.

The voters will be with us. From the Philadelphia Enquirer:

Other advocates, such as Tricia Riccio, a Warren County mother of a quadriplegic teenager, said she had not given up hope for Codey’s proposals.

She is, however, the kind of voter Forrester fears: Riccio said she and her family would vote for Corzine solely because he supported embryonic stem-cell research, which she believes could someday allow her son Carl to walk again.

“My husband and I are lifelong Republicans who switched our parties because of the need for stem-cell research,” Riccio said. “This issue matters more for us than anything else.”

The U.S. House of Representatives sent a bill to the Senate that would allow a resurgence of hope for millions of Americans stricken with diseases that may be treated or cured with stem cell research. What does the Senate do? Nothing. The Hill reports:

“The leader will move to bring the bill to the Senate for action next year, likely before the Easter recess,” Eric Ueland, Frist’s chief of staff, said in an e-mail. “The Senate is in no position to have the type of thoughtful and focused debate this issue deserves in the time it has before adjourning prior to Thanksgiving.”

While the Senate dawdles, American researchers fall farther behind scientists in other (more receptive) countries. Every year, 13,000 children are diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. 360,000 adults are diagnosed with Alzheimers. Can the Senate really afford to wait?

Meanwhile, Brownback is chomping at the bit to crush thousands of children’s hope for a cure to their disease:

“The vote in the House to allow taxpayer-funded destruction of young human lives is deeply troubling,” Brownback said. “We all have a duty to protect the innocent, and this vote represents a failure to recognize the scientific fact that stem-cell research that destroys embryos kills young human children.”

While Brownback is a brutal, heartless and uncaring political opportunist, never let it be said that he doesn’t know how to frame an argument. He conveniently leaves out the fact that the embryos used for research would have been thrown out anyway. I wonder why he doesn’t talk about it? Could it be that the vast majority of Americans support stem cell research on embryos that are to be discarded?

Stem cell research is one of the areas that could destroy Brownback’s chances at being President. His position is only popular with the abortion clinic bombers and their ilk. America should be at the forefront of research that could enrich its citizen’s lives. To retard this progress for political gains is morally reprehensible.

According to the Boston Globe, the stem cell bill that recently passed with bipartisan support in the House will likely come up in the Senate next month. The Globe reports:

Frist, a heart surgeon, is ‘’uneasy about the content of the House bill,” but is open to bringing it up for a vote along with other legislation that deals with stem cell research, Call said. The content of any competing bills is not yet clear.

Call said no agreement has been reached yet, but aides to Democratic senators said yesterday that Frist has assured them a vote before the Senate breaks for the summer at the end of July.

Uneasy? He should be. The issue of embryonic stem cell research is an absolute winner for the Democratic party. A CBS News poll in late May found that 58% of Americans support embryonic stem cell research. The breakdown by party is similarly stacked against the republicans: 50% of Republicans, 65% of Democrats, and 57% of independents support the research. The PR value of this issue is easy to exploit. There are millions of Americans who are suffering from medical conditions that could be cured by this research. While we are arguing about clumps of cells, countries like South Korea and France are pulling ahead in the search for cures.

However, considering Senator Frist’s presidential aspirations, this is big trouble. The republican religious base hates this bill. They will not support anyone who votes for this legislation. On the other hand, In the general election he would need to be on the other side of the issue. Whoever is the Democratic nominee in 2008 will happily use stem cell research as a very effective wedge issue.

As you well know, Senator Brownback is planning on opposing the bill. The Boston Globe article continues:

Conservative senators, led by Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, have vowed to mount a filibuster if the House-passed bill reaches the Senate floor. Embryonic stem cell research requires the destruction of embryos, sparking opposition from many in the antiabortion movement.

I imagine we will hear some filibuster bluster from Brownback this weekend as he talks at the National Right to Life Convention.

For the record… I think the charge of “flip flopper” is bogus. It is so generic that any senator’s record could easily be massaged to fit. That being said, if you’re gonna dish it out, you’d better be able to take it.

On that note, Senator Brownback seems to see no hypocrisy in opposing the filibuster when the Democrats are using it but championing it when he wants to use it. First, a KRT newswire story shows how Brownback felt about the filibuster just 2 weeks ago:

…the region’s other Republican senators, Kit Bond and Jim Talent of Missouri, and Sam Brownback of Kansas all said they would back Frist.

Brownback pointed out that “we’ve been hung up now four years” on several of the nominees.

“There’s no sign of it ending,” Brownback said. “We’re kind of at the end of the string. I don’t know what else we can do” other than change the rules.

Now for exhibit number two. This is Brownback five days ago discussing the upcoming stem cell research bill in the Senate:

“We’re going to do everything we can to stop it,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan. He vowed to mount a filibuster, which allows a minority of senators to block a vote on the measure.

How I love the smell of hypocrisy. He makes it so easy. It makes me wonder if any of his legislative aides bothered to think how this would look. I guess he doesn’t have to worry about getting re-elected here in Kansas. Even if he was photographed having indecent relations with an emu Kansans would still elect him with 60% of the vote. Such is the crazy political culture of Kansas.

Thanks to the dailykos crew for the heads up.

While everyone will be talking about the Specter Slam discussed below… Senator Brownback also mentioned an issue on the Sunday edition of ‘This Week” that could be much more important to fighting any future presidential aspirations..

The gist: Senator Brownback wants to regulate a couple’s right to receive in-vitro fertilization.

(more…)

Sunday morning on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Senator Sam Brownback debated Arlen Specter over the subject of federal funding for stem cell research. While they are both republicans they are on opposite sides of this contentious debate. Senator Specter is suffering from Hodgkin’s disease. He vociferously argued in favor of increased federal money.

Specter’s main argument was that the 400,000 embryos currently in storage will either be used for science of destroyed. There is no chance of them all becoming children. Why waste these embryos if they could contribute ot meaningful scientific research?

Brownback, the poster child for “love the fetus, forget about the child” republicanism, attempted to argue his typical “all life is sacred” drivel. He looked noticably uncomfortable whenever Specter would hammer the point that these embryos will be destroyed anyway. This unmasked Brownback as the anti-cure neo-luddite christo-fascist that he is.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the debate came when Brownback demanded of Senator Specter, “When did your life start?”

To this, Senator Specter answered in his weak and raspy voice, “Well Sam, I’m a lot more concerned at this point about when my life is gonna end.”

Crooks and Liars has the video.

It’s true. He wishes them to lead a life of constant finger pricks and needles. He wants them to go blind, have kidney failure and become amputees.

You know, I wish Senator Brownback had the balls to talk to a juvenile diabetic in person. I wish he was enough of a man to tell a five year old that he opposes the best chances for a cure in his/her lifetime. Does he have any idea how hard it is to tell a small child that they have to prick their finger every day for the rest of their lives? These are kids who should be worried about missing Clifford the Big Red Dog on PBS, not worried about how many milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood the cookie will cause.

I saw a PBS Nova program the other day about stem cell research. It featured a teenage diabetic female and her mother. Her mother is a self described Catholic. She talks about how a clump of cells should not have the same rights as her daughter. I could see the pain in her face as she talked about the chance of finding a cure for type one diabetes.

I can’t help but wonder if one of Senator Brownback’s kids had diabetes, would he have a different view? Would he love his child or his politics? The sad thing is, I have seen nothing from the man that would suggest he would choose his child. His actions in the past would lead to the conclusion that he would gladly let his child die in order to save the “life” of a clump of cells.

The Washington Times, not exactly a paragon of liberal bias, reported today that there are two bills regarding human cloning currently in the legislature. One, sponsored by republican Mary Bono (R-Calif) would ban cloning meant to produce a child. It does, however, protect cloning of embryos that is necessary for stem cell research to continue. The other bill, sponsored in the senate by our own Senator Sam Brownback bans all types of human cloning, including therapeutic (or embryonic) cloning for research.

It is in times like these that I get a sense of what Galileo’s friends must have felt like. Earth is not the center of the universe? Heretic! Pagan! Democrat! How dare he push the scientific envelope. Research? Why do research? The Bible tells us everything we were meant to know. Especially how it is Godly to sell our daughters into slavery. Check Leviticus, it’ll fill you in on the details.

You want to worship your God? Great. That is what makes America the wonderful, diverse country that it is. Worship your God, gods, allah, yaweh, satan, gaia, vishnu, buddha or ganja for all I care. Just keep your holy Jesus fingers out of science.

Or, Senator Brownback, if you must meddle… at least have the courage and the spine to meet the victims of your crusade face to face. Visit a pediatric ward and talk to the kids with diabetes. Explain to them the consequences of your actions. You will still be a heartless, ignorant, child hating bastard… but at least you won’t continue to be a coward.

Thanks to a tip from Plutonium Page over at DailyKos I looked into Senator Brownback’s science advisor, a Dr. David Prentice. He has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas and was a Professor of Life Sciences at Indiana State University. Pretty impressive credentials.

These days, Dr. Prentice is a Senior Fellow for Life Sciences at the Family Research Council. It is a sad day in America when I automatically assume that anything with “family” as a prominent part of their name is a wingnut organization, but in this case it is true.

The Family Research Council is, well, I’ll let them explain:

The Family Research Council (FRC) champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society. FRC shapes public debate and formulates public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and the family. Believing that God is the author of life, liberty, and the family, FRC promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society.

Now doesn’t that sound like a rational, scientific mission? A “Judeo-Christian Worldview”? It doesn’t exactly sound objective. What is a scientist trained in biochemistry doing working for the Family Research Council? It appears that he is trotted out like a mustachioed show pony every time there is debate on stem cell research to claim that although we don’t know all of the possible benefits of embryonic stem cells, we certainly should not study them.

So just remember that Senator Brownback’s science advisor works for an organization that is fighting to protect the “wellspring of society”.

All I have to say is “Keep your hands off my seedbed!”