There is an interesting and insightful piece by columnist Eileen McNamara in today's
Boston Globe. The column discusses Romney's position on the current stem cell research legislation in Mass, but also touches on a number of related issues: Mitt Romney's attempts to be portrayed as a moderate in Massachusetts while he simultaneously markets himself as a conservative on the national stage, and the political hijacking of ethical debate in this country.
(more below)
Key paragraphs from the column include the following, but I strongly recommend reading the entire piece linked above:
In his bid to market himself nationally as an unyielding social conservative, Romney has forgotten that he sold himself to Massachusetts as a political moderate.
[ ]
Romney is not out of step with his state because he has ethical concerns about the use of cloning techniques to create embryos for stem-cell research. So does every thoughtful advocate of the bill that won overwhelming approval in the Legislature last week. That is why the conference committee reconciling the House and Senate versions will spend more time this week on specifics of regulation than complexities of science.
[ ]
He cannot tap his political war chest to buy airtime to thunder against a ''radical cloning bill," then shrug off the veto-proof vote with a ''game is over" comment, without raising doubts about which audience that ad was really targeting, South Natick or South Carolina.
The lopsided votes, 35-2 in the Senate and 117-37 in the House, speak volumes about the disconnect between Romney's rhetoric and political reality in Massachusetts. ... Those lawmakers, and the voters they represent, are not unmindful that every scientific advance carries its own ethical challenge. They have chosen to confront rather than shrink from that challenge.
[]
It is politics, not science, which is hijacking the ethical debate about everything from embryonic stem-cell research to gay marriage to end-of-life medical care. The majority of Americans were horrified by the intrusion of Congress and the president into the medical decisions governing the treatment of Terri Schiavo, not because they are callous about that family's tragedy but because they do not want Tom DeLay at the bedside if tragedy befalls a loved one of their own.
Romney says the United States is in the midst of ''a battle on the ideals and ethics that define our nation's culture." But his is a phony war, cooked up by religious zealots, served up by right-wing talking heads, and swallowed whole by a Republican Party that has sold its big tent to shack up with a pack of screamers.
[]
(emphasis mine)
With this in mind, I'd like to add that just as politics has hijacked the scientific process, it will be right wing politics attempting to hijack the judicial system in the coming weeks, not judicial activism.