Congress stuff
Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Stem cells become issue in the 6th.
The question of using embryonic stem cells for medical research is proving another litmus test in the 6th Congressional District.
At a news conference Tuesday, Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth called for action on a measure in Congress loosening restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell studies.
“Science and hope are two things I believe in strongly. Unfortunately, they’re in shorter supply than they should be,†said Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran from Hoffman Estates.
Her Republican opponent, state Sen. Peter Roskam, opposes using embryonic stem cells, arguing that scientific investigations using adult stem cells have yielded better results.
“It is my intention to focus on this type of research in Congress which is producing results for Americans who are afflicted with these diseases,†the Wheaton resident said.
“We cannot leave our moral obligations at the laboratory door and take one human life and cast it aside for the benefit of another.â€
Paperwork becomes an issue in the 17th.
The State Board of Elections’ list of latest candidate filings now includes Phil Hare in Congressional District 17.
No objection to the filing is listed, which I take to mean there hasn’t been one. (Some of the filings listed include a notation that an objection is pending.)
Meanwhile, the Federal Election Commission website does not list a Phil Hare campaign committee, which I take to mean he hasn’t yet filed organizational papers, which I further take to mean he hasn’t yet raised the $5,000 that triggers the requirement to file.
Hare has also been blasted for not properly reading the House rules.
This is a congressional elections open thread, but try to stick to Illinois races, please. Although, on a side note and completely off topic, I will say that Sen. Lieberman’s plight reminds me of Alan Dixon’s losing race in 1992. Dixon, you will recall, broke with party ranks one too many times when he voted to confirm Clarence Thomas and he lost the Democratic primary. The lesson there is, you have to win a primary before you can be crowned in the general. Dixon “voted like a Republican” and was sent to the private sector. Lieberman seems to have the same problem.
- bored now - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:20 am:
have you seen this?
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctlamont0613.artjun13,0,7963363.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Lieberman Ally Advises: Run As An Independent
June 13, 2006
By MARK PAZNIOKAS, Courant Staff Writer
A prominent ally of U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman urged Monday that Lieberman run for re-election as an independent and not trust his career to left-leaning Democratic primary voters in August.
John F. Droney Jr., a former Democratic state chairman who helped Lieberman unseat Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. in 1988, said Lieberman should make his case for re-election to all voters in November.
it’s almost like they are expecting to lose! well, the primary. month old polling indicates:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/April%202006/Connecticut%20Senate%20April.htm
Joe Lieberman (I) 47%
Ned Lamont (D) 20%
Paul Streitz (R) 17%
be interesting to see how that one turns out…
- Bill Baar - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:25 am:
I was disappointed when the Dems talked so much about stem cell research at the convention. The technology is hugely over sold and people with diseases that will never be cured by this science get told if only the Pharm companies could get fed funds for research, you’d be cured.
What was some of the worse demagoging I’ve witnessed. I’d hate to see Duckworth latch on to this issue.
I had an email from her campaign a week ago telling me Republicans would privatize my social security. That’s another bad move… Bush ownership accounts could easily be converted into McGovern style DemoGrants (remeber those? google Tobin -McGovern’s Economist- and DemoGrants)
Something has to be done with pensions and when Bush gets radical, it would be nice to see radicals get with Bush.
Duckworth no radical yet and that’s hugely sad.
- Bill Baar - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:44 am:
Bored Now, Hillary may have to run as an independent if those folks who booed here yesterday have any say in the party. And I think they will.
- Leroy - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:03 am:
Isn’t public funding of stem cell research just a handout to Big Pharma?
Also stem cell is very important on my list of issues:
My big issues
————-
1. Government corruption
2. Skyrocketing property taxes
3. Poor shape of schools
4. Goverment spending / government debt issues
5. Personal privacy issues
.
.
.
.
321. Stem cells
- Niles Township - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:49 am:
Losing Lieberman in the Dem party would be a loss. What happen to the party of the big tent? I am pro-choice and believe we need to wind down our troop deployment to Iraq. But I am proud to be a part of a party that could include candidates like Lieberman in CT and Casey in PA. We don’t have a parlimentary system in this country. Legislators don’t always have to vote the party line. This is especially true in the Senate which is supposed to be less sesitive to these types of partisan efforts. Dems will onlt take back what was once ours, when we recognize that we are a diverse bunch.
- NW burbs - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:12 am:
Niles,
It isn’t a “big tent” issue regarding Lieberman — he’s been a Democratic Senator for how many terms, in addition to a 2004 presidential contender and a 2000 VP candidate, all on the Dem side.
Rather, with “Joementum” the issue is that all too often he is simply not loyal to his fellow Democrats, choosing instead to support the GOP to the detriment of the Democratic Party. Clearly we here in Illinois have almost no say in this primary but it’s obvious you can’t be in the Big Tent if you yourself choose to leave it…
Joe Lieberman made the choice to join zig-zag Zell Miller in support of the GOP, no one in the Democratic Party made them do it. People change. Since Lieberman is even entertaining the notion that he might run as an independent it’s clear he no longer feels he needs to be a member of the Democratic Party to begin with (much like the many Kansas Republicans now switching to run as Democrats in the Sunflower State).
And isn’t that the whole point to primaries? To let the party’s members choose their candidate (whether incumbent or newcomer)…?
By the by, to Casey in PA (who is not yet a US Senator), you can add Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader, who is also a Big Tent pro-life Dem.
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Bill post #1, I was disappointed when the 2004 GOP Convention was a mass display of 9/11 politicization … Bush still won.
But I am glad at least one of the parties in our two-party system is talking about finding cures for debilitating and life threatening diseases. If it weren’t for the Dems discussing it so much, the GOP would be ignoring it.
Maybe stem cells aren’t the answer. Maybe adult cells aren’t the answer either. But we’ll never know if the research is simply shut down (which, for all intents and purposes, Bush did during his first term).
As for Roskam’s opposition to embryonic stem cells I ask him, what sort of life is it for a clump of 8 proto-cells to be frozen in a locker for eternity? (Especially when the parents of these cells have already offered to make them available for scientific research so that the one can help the many.)
There are a lot of snowflakes out there and I don’t see too many conservatives adopting them. In fact, there are hardly any conservatives adopting them.
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Bill post #2, What does Hillary have to do with a Congressional topics open thread? Has anyone brought up the numerous times W. or Cheney have been booed?
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Leroy, I’m glad no one you know has diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimers…. And no, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a “Big Pharma” handout. There are some fantastic public research institutions in the US (ie, public universities) that have done groundbreaking work in not just medicine but myriad other fields when given the opportunity. (But, then the university — and by extension the public and the common good — receive any proceeds rather than the lobbyist-enamored Big Pharma conglomerates.)
- Bill Baar - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:40 am:
It’s not easy being a Lieberman Democrat.
- anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:01 am:
Leave the party, Bill. We won’t miss you.
- quad cities - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:17 am:
Big news in the Quad Cities media market is that John Edwards just went ahead of all Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, in a new Des Moines Register poll of Iowa Democrats. Keep an eye on Edwards.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:09 am:
Stem cells is a loser.
Lieberman will be re-elected.
Since Gore lost, Democrats have been destroying themselves. Like the Whigs during the Jacksonian Age, Democrats have become completely unhinged with Bush. Even Gore, once a stable Vice President, has cracked and now spouts off anti-US dribble in Saudi Arabia and now promotes a movie full of superstition about the environment.
The Boomer generation had peaked. As it ages, the dreams and hopes of a whiffle-ball world via enlightened socialism is being replaced. This is driving them mad. Since the majority of Boomers are Democrats, this madness has infected the Party.
What they don’t seem to understand is that the majority of voters still pine for the same nirvana. They just see that getting there isn’t by government give-away programs. They see that the US is number one and on a daily basis, reflects a uniting of many nations, beliefs and customs in ways the UN could never attain. Socialism is dead. It is a new world.
The sooner the Democratic Party embraces the new reality of the 21st Century, the sooner they will avoid the fate of the Whigs.
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 1:24 pm:
I am curious as to what the loyal Democrats on this blog think of Howard Dean’s performance as DNC Chairman.
- Scott - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 5:35 pm:
The Republicans can have Lieberman, we’ll take Lincoln Chafee. Even swap.
- Northern District - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:28 pm:
Hastert’s safe from a serious election challenge, but I wonder if this will catch the eye of Patrick Fitzgerald.