Republican centrists dominate — for 48 hours at least

WASHINGTON - On Tuesday on the Senate filibuster issue and again on Wednesday in the House vote to provide taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research, it was centrist Republicans, mostly from the Northeast, some from the Midwest and California, who took command.

So for 48 hours at least, the dominant branch of the Republican Party this week was the centrist wing, comprised mostly of members of Congress from places far from the Southern-Mountain State heartland of George W. Bush’s brand of Republicanism.

Bush was born in Connecticut, a state his grandfather represented in the United States Senate, but today his party’s geographical and ideological center is somewhere closer to Midland, Texas, where Bush grew up, or Belle Meade, the wealthy Nashville suburb where Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spent his childhood.

High-profile centrists
Instead of Frist and DeLay, the marquee Republican names Tuesday and Wednesday were Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, chief GOP sponsor of the stem cell funding bill, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who helped design the accord to avert a change in the Senate’s filibuster rule.

To be sure, the label “centrist” is an imprecise one, especially when applied to a senator such as DeWine who has a lifetime 82 rating (out of a perfect 100) from the American Conservative Union (ACU).

Stem-cell research champion Castle better fits the “centrist” profile with a lifetime 59 rating from the ACU.

In Wednesday’s House vote approving taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research, 50 Republican members, many of them from the Northeast, California and Florida, voted with 187 Democrats and independent Bernie Sanders to pass the bill.

While the bill garnered 238 votes, it didn’t get the 290 needed to overcome the veto which the president emphatically has promised.

“The Castle bill is dead,” said one of its opponents, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., right after the vote.

Smith sponsored an alternative bill which will provide $75 million for research on umbilical cord stem cells. The House passed the Smith bill Tuesday with only one dissenting vote.

Hoping to change Bush's mind
But Castle voiced hope that GOP centrists might change Bush’s mind.

“I believe that this president has a good heart,” the Delaware Republican told reporters Tuesday night. “I’ve spoken not to the president directly, but to Karl Rove and to the NIH (National Institutes of Health) people. Remember: in August of 2001 he approved a policy that allowed embryonic stem cell research.”

The 2001 Bush policy permitted taxpayer funding of research on stem cell lines created as of Aug. 9, 2001 or prior to that date, but no taxpayer funding for the derivation or use of stem cell lines derived from newly destroyed embryos after that date.

Of the 50 Republicans who voted for the Castle stem cell bill, 11 of them represent congressional districts that Democrat John Kerry won in last November’s elections. Conversely, of the 11 Democrats who voted against the legislation, nine were from congressional districts that Bush carried last November.

Democrats were quick to deploy stem-cell funding as a wedge issue to try to split middle-of-the-spectrum voters away from GOP members of Congress.

“Bush sacrifices stem cell research to radical right-wing politics,” proclaimed a headline of a press release Tuesday night from the Democratic National Committee.

One of the Northeastern Republicans who voted for the Castle embryonic stem cell bill, Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, is a long-time Bush pal who voiced hopes that he and others might yet persuade the president to sign the bill.

As is the president’s habit with his acquaintances, Bush has given Bass a nickname, “Bassmaster.”

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Poll: Public sours on Obama's overhaul plan S.C. lawmakers approve formal rebuke for gov.   Suspicious package found at Sen. Baucus' office   House passes defense bill, rushes toward recess Citigroup gains huge tax break in deal with IRS House rushes to finish its work for year Bernanke is TIME’s 2009 Person of the Year Obama: Health reform at ‘precipice’ of passage Dems to Lieberman: 'Say it's so, Joe' Rural Ill. prison to house Gitmo detainees Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: