I Guess the Needle Lady Couldn't Make It
Dennis York offers an insightful piece about Governor Doyle’s despicable politicization of stem cell research.
Meanwhile Doyle’s campaign announced that he will be introduced at the Democratic Convention by Jodi Montgomery, a mother whose daughter has Type 1 Diabetes. This isn’t the first time Doyle has used the mother of a diabetic child to make a political point.
Last year Doyle's office delivered a bag containing 1400 used diabetic needles to the office of Speaker John Gard. The bag which had to be removed by a Hazardous Materials team was given to Doyle's staff by Liz Kastner. Doyle’s office said Kastner was the distraught mother of a diabetic who wanted to send Gard a message after the Assembly's passed a ban on human cloning.
Turns out Kastner, (AKA the needle lady) was not only a concerned mother, but also a long time Democratic activist. I wonder why she won't be introducing Doyle this weekend.
Expect the drumbeat on stem cell research to continue when Doyle's campaign begins airing television ads featuring children with diabetes and promoting his support for stem cell research.
4 Comments:
York's piece calls the Governor's position on stem cell research "despicable" because (according to York) Doyle mentions Alzheimer's disease among a host of other maladies which might benefit from the research. York then cites several sources to support his theory that Alzheimer's along among the maladies may not benefit from stem cell research.
This makes Doyle's position "despicable"? What about juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's (to which the Governor's mother succumbed), and spinal cord injuries? York conceds this point by default, since his elaborate "straw man" argument makes no reference to them.
More puzzling is Mark Green's blind allegiance to the opponents of embryonic stem cell research, who seem hell-bent to shut down this promising avenue of inquiry wherein Wisconsin is uniquely positioned.
Remember that virtually all Republican legislators supported a bill -- vetoed by Doyle -- which would have subjected stem cell scientists to $250,000 to $1 million fines for engaging in some forms of stem cell research.
That's a position which truly is "despicable."
Of course, I never said Doyle's position on stem cell research was "despicable." Obviously it's easier to argue against someone when you completely fabricate their argument.
First, Doyle falsely attempts to give hope to people with Alzheimer's and their families by pitching stem cell research as a cure. Secondly, he completely misrepresents the Republican position on stem cell research - the issue is whether we allow human cloning to create embryos, which are then killed for the cells. Very few people object to the practice of research on existing embryos. Third, Doyle decries the "politicization" of the issue, while at the same time trying to raise money for his campaign using his support of human cloning.
All of these are digraceful, confuse the public, and undermine the gravity of the issue.
theodore, you elide the ethical context of the whole issue - as does Governor Doyle and a whole legion of politicians. This elision is what I find despicable. As Dennis York points out, the question is, do you in effect allow the creation of (what I think ultimately would become) some form of embryo farming, the growth of human embryos which are then killed to conduct research? Doyle's rhetorical and political ploys, tied to fundraising, brook NO sincere discussion of this very profound choice we as humans are going to make in the way we proceed in how we deal with ourselves - from here on out. (What limits does he see to this kind of research? Any?)
And now he's made this is a full-blown campaign issue, apparently. I suppose it is a Dane County strategy, an elitist strategy of sort, but hardly something for a platform consisting of issues about how "I wake up every day thinking about the middle class." Somehow, I doubt stem cell research is an rings a chord at the Wednesday night softball games in Manitowoc.
You succumb to the same kind of easy political head-knocking Doyle does, and bring in the grotesque as well. Governor Doyle's mother died of Parkinson's? She was aged as I understand. My grandma died of the complications of diabetes. Do you want to trade the horror stories of the suffering of the ill and aging? You make me puke. My grandma was 92, with diabetes. Did the lack of stem cell research kill her? Or was it her time? People do die, theo. It's a consequence of being born, if you haven't heard.
Pardon me, Dennis, but the Republicans in the legislature who are so lathered up about "cloning" would love to introduce a bill to ban all embryonic stem cell research. Sen. Fitzgerald had the bill all drafted but opted not to put it in after the amendment to AB 499 to permit therpeutic cloning failed in the Senate on a 17-16 vote. Just ask him.
Or consider his brother, Rep. Fitzgerald, who, after commenting that he would be "crazy" to vote against the Institute for Discovery in the Building Commission did just that.
Green can try to hide behind his little charade -- "I am the leader in advancing medical research for every disease from the heartbreak of psoriasis on up" -- but it just isn't going to wash this year. Wait until he and the Governor have their first debate. As Gus Petch said in
"Intolerable Cruelty," Big Jim is going to "nail his ass" on this one.
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