Congressman Ben Chandler firmly established his Beltway liberal credentials last year when he voted to raise taxes, set up abortion clinics on overseas military bases, and to throw extra money at the National Endowment for the Arts. He surely sealed the deal yesterday when he voted to spend taxpayer dollars to create a market for human embryos.
Democrats think they have found a wedge issue for the 2006 elections in embryonic stem cell research. Proponents of this research claim that destroying live human embryos can yield material to cure a long laundry list of diseases and conditions. There is, of course, no evidence to suggest that this works.
Fifty House Republicans went along with the scheme. Fortunately, a more rational version of a research bill passed as well.
President Bush will veto the bad bill if necessary.
UPDATE: It would be funny if it weren't so cynical and stupid. Goofy Senators Reid and Kennedy are both calling for an "up-or-down vote" on federal embryonic destruction. The AP writer on the story unwittingly ads more of the same with this helpful sentence: "He called for an "up-or-down vote," meaning one with no amendments attached." Oh. Is that what it means when Democrats say it? Last week it was just something Republicans said when they wanted their fascist judges pushed through with no regard for "minority rights."