Will Joe Pitts Endorse Pence?
By Erick Posted in 2006 — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
With Joe Barton not taking our advice and running for House Minority Leader, it will be interesting to see if Congressman Joe Pitts supports him.
Today, Congressman Pitts came out for John Shadegg for Whip. Pitts is an important endorsement because he is the Chairman of the Values Action Team.
Joe Barton famously broke ranks with House conservatives last year on stem cell research. In the most revolting endorsement for stem cell research Barton said, well, here are his own words:
Well, I accept and support that an embryo is a life. I agree with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Ferguson) that we were all embryos once. I understand that. And, obviously, at 7 days or 14 days, embryos do not have consciousness. They do not have free will. They do not have the neuro cells or brain cells to make a decision whether they want to voluntarily make a sacrifice. I understand that.
But I would say this: If they did, out of the 400,000 that we think may be in existence, if you narrow that down to the 2.8 percent that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) talked about that are probably not going to be used for reproductive purposes, if they did, would not some of them, knowing the stakes, volunteer? It only takes one, the right one, that magic silver bullet embryo that creates that magic stem cell that can be replicated into any of the 200 cell lines that make up the human body.
Whether you support government funded stem cell research or not, do you want a master of logic like that as your next Minority Leader?
Joe Pitts disagreed with Joe Barton then. As Chairman of the Values Action Team, I hope he won't sell out and sign on with Barton now. Our Republican leaders should be right on life.
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Will Joe Pitts Endorse Pence? 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
is the problem, not the solution
but why the question? What reason does Pitts have for endorsing Barton?
"Republicans have not just lose our majority, we lost our way." - Mike Pence
No matter what other strategies the GOP adopts for recapturing Congress and winning the White House in 2008, we need to put this stem-cell confusion to bed once and for all.
The MSM has been spinning faster than Katrina, purposely confusing the public into believing that embryonic stem-cells are the next great panacea for curing debilitating diseases, if only the right-wing Jesus freaks would get out of the way of science.
In respect to the anti-profanity rules of this blog, we must respond: Masculine Bovine Excrement.
ALL the scientific advances in stem-cell therapy that have shown any positive results WITHOUT EXCEPTION have used adult stem-cells, which can be obtained without killing or harming the donor, who is in many cases also the recipient patient.
Embryonic stem-cell experiments have yet to demonstrate a single clinical success, and many experiments have led to horrible side-effects in patients: tumors, uncontrollable tremors, and bone growth in patients' brains. Talk about a bone-headed idea!
Another ethically-acceptable source of stem cells is umbilical cord blood and human placentas after birth. No one is harmed by harvesting them, since they are normally discarded after birth. They even have a cord-blood bank in India, to which women willingly donate umbilical cords for scientific research.
We cannot afford to be blind-sided again by last-minute ads like the Michael J. Fox ad that cost Jim Talent his Senate seat. No matter who our future candidates are, the GOP message on stem-research must be:
We wholeheartedly support adult stem-cell research and cord-blood stem-cell research, which harms no one and has shown positive results in clinical trials.
We oppose embryonic stem-cell research, which kills human beings and has never cured a single disease.
The GOP: defending human life AND supporting science that really works.
We lost a good Senator, who was never accused of any scandal, (and the Senate majority) over MSM lies on this issue. We now have two years to get the truth out. We need to work with the pro-life community to make strong, hard-hitting, truthful ads on this issue (regardless of candidates) that will be ready to help ALL our pro-life candidates when needed.
One idea: find a child who was a former embryo in a fertility clinic (preferably a cute little girl, to pull at people's heartstrings), with a voice over: "This was a leftover embryo at a fertility clinic X years ago, which was then implanted in a woman's womb." Then show the video of the Michael J. Fox ad, with a voice-over: "Should she be killed to use her cells in a futile effort to cure this man?"
Then show an adult donating stem-cells through a needle, with a voice-over:"This person is donating his stem cells" (switch to Michael J. Fox again),"in the hope of curing this man. The Republican party (or candidate X) whole-heartedly supports funding this effort. Adult stem-cells have already worked in clinical trials, embryonic stem-cells have not. Vote Republican, for protecting life and finding cures."
If anyone here has better ideas, let's read them!
The bad news: Conservatism is hard to sell. The good news is that it works.
i don't think he has any reason to endorse barton. he's not chairman of energy and commerce anymore. plue, i'm sure pitts is still plenty hot about the stem cell issue - that was a betrayal of life something pitts never gives on.
do you think he's waiting to hear boehner's case for remaining leader?
As a soon-to-be former staffer for the Energy and Commerce Committee, I have to say that I think Joe Barton would make a great leader for Republicans in the House. During his three years as chairman of the committee, he has stuck to his principles.
He supports and has worked for more domestic energy exploration, he made reforms in Medicaid that will reduce waste, fraud and abuse while taming spending, and he did it in the teeth of withering criticism from Democrats. He has a simple goal - more freedom and less government.
While it certainly isn't sexy, entitlement reform and balanced budgets are hallmarks of conservative leadership. Taxpayers deserve help to sunset bad entitlement programs and Joe Barton will get the job done.
I'll quote my boss on his plan for taming spending, something I think we can all agree on: "Common sense strongly suggests that we operate a two-year budget and appropriations cycle. When we lose control of appropriations, spenders run the government. Somehow they never want to spend less, only more."
Makes me strongly believe we need a post election venting thread (Which should appropriately come with a profanity reminder).
I am seriously trying to stay on topic, but the pressure is moving towards stroke territory. After this election, how could Barton possibly think he was even eligible. He is a poster child for everything wrong with the party. The epitomy of a drive by politician that yields to emotion and casual platitudes instead of academic and intellectual conclusion.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"