GOP divides on stem-cell research

The GOP seems to be splintering when it comes to the issue of stem-cell research. President Bush's most prominent Senate ally, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, announced that he would break with the White House and support legislation allowing the federal government to finance research using a broader range of embryonic stem cells, which the White House said it would veto.

The Los Angeles Times says this decision exposed deep rifts within the GOP hierarchy that controls the Capitol and the White House, pitting social conservatives, who view the research as immoral because human embryos are destroyed in the process, against people who say the research is warranted because it may lead to cures for diseases.

The announcement by Frist, a transplant surgeon who is considered a likely contender for president in 2008, contradicted recent signals that he would oppose the legislation, and word of his decision Thursday night caught his Senate colleagues and the White House by surprise. It also was an unambiguous sign that politics had tilted in favor of research advocates and against Bush and the social conservatives who are the core of his political base.

Frist sided with scientists, patients' groups, and lawmakers who have said Bush's policy is too restrictive, leaving federally backed scientists unable to work with newer and apparently more versatile cell groups. He said, "the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases."

To me this is a victory of pragmatic, moderate Republicans over the theocons.