Just saw the story cross the AP,
via the Times. Nancy Reagan is again urging liberalization (pun intended) of Bush's stem cell edicts, and it looks like Billy Frist is going to take her up on it, and finally allow the Senate to debate the slightly merciful bill that passed the House last year.
Soon as I saw the story I went to Google News to check how old it was... and came upon the Baptist Press's coverage, which seems to have pre-dated the AP's.
Odd. Anyway, quotes from both below the fold...
Nancy Reagan Again Takes Lead on Stem Cells
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 15, 2006
Filed at 9:14 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With Nancy Reagan's blessing and in defiance of President Bush's veto threat, Senate Republican leaders are making plans for a vote this summer on a bill to restore federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
The House passed the measure nearly a year ago with support from 50 Republicans.
[snip]
President Bush in 2001 ordered sharp restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, allowing it only for stem cells created before Aug. 9 of that year.
His veto threat stands, according to White House spokesman Ken Lisaius. Neither chamber of Congress has demonstrated the two-thirds support required to overcome a veto.
[snip]
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., announced last summer that he supports the measure. With Republicans divided on the issue, he has been looking for a way to bring it to the floor as part of a package that stands a chance of passing.
A Senate Republican aide who spoke on condition of anonymity said tentative plans are for the House-passed bill to be brought up this summer as part of a three-measure package. The debate, expected to last only two days, also would include related bills to fund research on stem cells derived from other sources and ban so-called farming of embryos for scientific purposes.
The Baptist Press phrases matters a bit differently (and I'll bet they'll just love to see a bunch of Kossacks visiting):
WASHINGTON (BP)--The United States Senate may vote before Memorial Day weekend on a bill to fund stem cell research that destroys embryos.
Although Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee rejected a request from 40 Democrats to hold a vote on the controversial measure during the week of May 8-12, it appears the delay on floor action may be brief, a congressional source said. The vote may occur before the Senate recesses May 29 to June 2, the source indicated.
If a vote takes place, the Senate is likely to pass a measure the House of Representatives approved last year despite a veto threat from President Bush. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, H.R. 810, is designed to undermine the president's policy, which prohibits federal funds for stem cell research that results in the destruction of human embryos. Bush's rule allows federal funds for research only on embryonic stem cell lines already in existence when his policy was announced in 2001.
Other than parenthetically wondering why the Baptist Press's story has so many more facts than the AP's (if you read the whole thing), I wonder if that's a faint ripping sound I'm hearing, as Frist's emerging play-to-the-middle strategy sounds like it's beginning to divide meiotically from Rove's play-to-the-base strategy...