The Doctor Says

Bill Frist's stance on stem cell research isn't really what bothers his fellow Republicans. It's that his 'pro-stem cell research but anti-abortion' stance confusingly dilutes the GOP's oft-utilized 'omnipotent claims' used to secure votes from their morality troops — a group of people that they prefer to ignore unless it's election time.

An editorial from today's Winston-Salem Journal:

This time, President Bush and members of Congress should listen to the senator who is also a medical doctor. As a respected heart and lung surgeon and researcher, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist ought to carry considerable clout when he weighs in on the politics of health care and science. He jeopardized his influence earlier this year when he participated in the shameful interference into the Terri Schiavo case, questioning her doctors' findings that she was in a permanent vegetative state after he watched a videotape and took a cursory look at her records. Later, Schiavo's autopsy confirmed that her doctors had been right. Frist had tarnished his credibility to please the Republican right wing.

...it was a major step for Frist to break ranks with Bush, who had threatened to veto a stem-cell bill passed by the House of Representatives in May.