Stemming The Tide

Bill Hobbs wonders aloud about the dearth of Nashbloggers typing about Frist and Stem Cells. I actually started a post on this around midnight and gave it up as a fool's errand. However, fool that I am, I'm back on board.

What do I think? Full Disclosure: Well, I'm a libertarian who votes Republican because most libertarian candidates to date have been unelectable whackos. As far as I'm concerned, there should be a HUGE limit on any type of Federal spending for any extras. Federal dollars are, after all, my dollars and your dollars and the dollars of the guy across the street. I don't like the idea of someone taking my hard-earned money by force and giving it to something I have no desire to support or participate in. That includes theoretical scientific endeavours with limited militaristic application, like stem-cell research. It's been around for awhile now, and private-sector funding is largely responsible for the current advances. I would personally like to see funding for both stem-cells and nanotech to stay firmly rooted in the publicprivate sector. (Edited...my mistake. Talk about Freudian Slips.)

The kernel of my thought on this is even more cynical. Frist wants to be President. He's had some major Q Factor gaffes in recent months, and he is watching Bush's numbers drop. (Lest we kid ourselves, the RNC is undoubtedly watching, too.) In order to keep a Republican at 1600, there has to be a decisive appeal to the floating centrist voters. Bringing the Doctor Whatever out against a very unpopular Bush decision, and doing so over a dead newscycle (i.e. the weekend) is coldly calculated to keep voters in the RNC camp. Nothing more.