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**John P. Mullen**

wrote:

Grey Satterfield wrote:

On 8/16/06 9:04 PM, in article
s.com,
" wrote:

Grey Satterfield wrote:

spending but there was nothing visceral about my feelings. But when he
vetoed the stem cell research bill it was a slap in the face. Not only was
Bush's veto profoundly misguided, it provided solid evidence to support his
enemies' claim that his lock-step Christian fundamentalism has detrimentally
affected his judgment. Alas, it appears to be so.

By promising in advance that he would veto the bill he freed the
Republicans to vote whichever way they each thought would help
them this Fall. The Democrats, of course, were already free to do
so. The veto doesn't hurt GWB at all, he will never run for Public
office again. Everybody got to claim they were acting according
to conscience without a damn thing changing. Altogether it was
a win-win situation for all of the politicians. The only losers were
the patients who need the research and their families.

The last sentence is all that makes sense: "The only losers were the
patients who need the research and their families." The translation is that
the president's veto was bad public policy. Making bad policy is always bad
politics in the long run and this fiasco should therefore be an
embarrassment to the Republican Party.

It is terribly naive to suppose they care about the long run, and not
all that astute to claim this will ocme back ot haunt them later.

The typical politician looks no farther than their next election, if
they set their sights on the long term and lose their next election
the long term doesn't involve them.

Plenty of Republicans voted for the bill so the failure will not
be laid on their doorstep by their constituents. Only if they
choose to run for President in 2008 would the national
consensus on the issue affect them.

The worst part is that Bush clearly
thought vetoing the bill was the right thing to do but he could not have
been more wrong.

Doh!

The veto will hurt Bush and the Republican Party.

A very large majority of US voters feel this sort of research is
warranted and that the Federal government should be involved so it can
go forward more quickly. In addition, this bill would give the Federal
government more control over a process that could easily be abused.

The Dems will say, "We need enough lawmakers to vote for this bill to be
able to override an anticipated Bush veto." They can use the coverage
argument, saying that, "Yes Senator Snort did vote for the bill this
time, but he did so because he knew the President would veto it. Make
sure it passes next time by voting for me!"

John Mullen