We’re All For It!

by digby

The Republicans are taking a new tack on stem cells. In response to the Michael J. Fox “backlash” Ken Mehlman just said on CNN that Jim Talent supports stem cell research but he just doesn’t think the government should pay for it. He pointed out that nobody says that the private sector shouldn’t pursue stem cell research. What’s the problem? (It’s a lie, of course. Talent’s position is actually much more complicated than that and just as ridiculous.)

This argument worked back in the day with the Hyde Amendment banning public money for abortion because some people object to the expenditure on moral grounds. Maybe it will work again. But I don’t think stem cell research has ever had the kind of visceral punch that abortion has and the benefits to everyone are far more obvious. (After all, it’s only dizzy women of child-bearing years who might tempt some man into getting her pregnant. Men can get Parkinson’s disease.)

Mostly, though, it undercuts the moral argument the Republicans have been making about their (phony) “culture of life.” Back in the 70’s, when the Hyde Amendment was passed, Republicans could get away with making practical arguments like “people shouldn’t have to pay for things that morally offend them.” But this isn’t the “me decade” anymore. The Republicans are no longer supposed to be just the defenders of traditional values — they are supposed to be true believers. I don’t see how the religious right could support such a “split-the-difference” strategy.

On the other hand, the religious right has recently been remarkably supportive of the party covering up for closeted GOP congressmen seducing teen agers, so it’s hard to see where they might draw the line.

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