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Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Coleman makes the flip flop official

After hours of speculation Sen. Smilin' Norm Coleman (R-MN) has made his flip flop official:

Sen. Norm Coleman said Tuesday he will introduce legislation that would make stem cell lines taken from embryos since President's Bush's 2001 ban available for federal funding, marking a major shift with the White House.

"This is an attempt to find common ground between science and pro-life," Coleman, R-Minn., said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Four years ago, Bush banned federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on lines not already developed by Aug. 9, 2001. In essence, Coleman is proposing to move that deadline to today.

"He's drawn a line in the sand that's not pro-science," Coleman said of Bush. "We don't want to be the party that's anti-science. We're not finding real hope" for cures.

...Coleman said his decision to try to find a workable plan was shaped in part by his own experience - two of his four children died of a rare genetic disorder. Those losses also "steeled my sentiment to pro-life," he said.

I know it makes me the asshole for asking, but did his children die before his 2002 senate campaign, when he supported Bush's stem cell stand? Or is this just a naked attempt to deflect criticism of his flip flop by reminding voters of his personal pain?

The answer is that Coleman's children died before the campaign:

November 6, 2002

It was one of many attitude revisions he would undergo. Two of his four children died of a rare genetic disorder, giving him a new perspective on abortion. "I wasn't pro-life in 1969, but I didn't have two kids who died at young ages," he said.

A child's death is always tragic. If I'm diminishing that in any way, I regret it. However, it seems to me that Coleman is using tragedy as political cover, which -- if true -- is far more grievous a sin.

3 Comments:

I think it's an attempt to seize moral authority based on personal suffering. The thing is, you could suffer a very similar experience and come to the exact opposite conclusion. I have a cousin with duchenne muscular dystrophy, a recessive genetic disorder. He was upset that his sister, who was a carrier, did not have an abortion after finding out she was carrying a male child because there was a 50% chance the child would also have MD. Is he right because he has faced enormous personal struggles every day of his life? I don't know. I think we should respect each other's personal experiences, but that doesn't require that I defer to your judgments based on the intensity of a particular experience.

By Hammer, at 9:28 AM