Edward's despicable lies yesterday...

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-04-2003
Edward's despicable lies yesterday...
29
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:00pm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/12/edwards.stem.cell/

Frist knocks Edwards over stem cell comment

Edwards invokes legacy of Christopher Reeve

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Posted: 8:47 PM EDT (0047 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist attacked Sen. John Edwards on Tuesday over a comment the Democratic vice presidential candidate made regarding actor Christopher Reeve.

Edwards said Reeve, who died Sunday, "was a powerful voice for the need to do stem cell research and change the lives of people like him.

"If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again," Edwards said.

Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, called Edwards' remark "crass" and "shameful," and said it gave false hope that new treatments were imminent.

Edwards campaign spokesman Mark Kornblau hit back, "Yes, breakthrough research often takes time, but that's never been a reason to not even try -- until George Bush."

Edwards made the comment Monday while he was stumping in Newton, Iowa.

Frist, who was a heart surgeon before coming to the Senate, responded Tuesday in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign.

"I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people," Frist said. "We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.

"It is cruel to people who have disabilities and chronic diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a physician who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope."

Kornblau, Edwards' spokesman, said, "What's crass is George Bush standing in the way of promising stem cell research."

Edwards and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry have been critical of President Bush's decision to limit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The candidates charge the federal limitation is hindering scientific progress on therapies that could offer hope to people suffering from maladies such as Parkinson's disease, juvenile diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Reeve, who was left paralyzed after a horseback-riding accident nine years ago, was an advocate for increased funding for new treatments for spinal cord injuries and stem cell research.

Kerry mentioned Reeve by name in Friday's presidential debate while criticizing Bush's stem cell policy.

Three years ago, citing moral and ethical considerations in destroying human embryos to extract stem cells, Bush limited federal research funding to embryonic stem cell lines already in existence.

Research using stem cells extracted from adult cells was not affected by the policy, nor was privately funded research using new embryonic stem cell lines.

The president and his supporters note that his administration is the first to offer any federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, accusing Democrats of trying to create the impression that Bush has banned the practice.

Criticizing Edwards' comment linking the lifting of Bush's policy to medical breakthroughs, Frist said research related to spinal cord injuries does not involve embryonic stem cells but rather adult stem cells, "where the president has absolutely no restrictions, no limitations and there are about 140 treatments."

Embryonic stem cells are believed to be able to develop into more kinds of cells than adult stem cells, and thus more useful in potentially treating diseases. Yet some research indicates that might not be the case, and the National Institutes of Health has called for further study of both adult and embryonic stem cells.

"Stem cell research is promising," Frist said. "The president vigorously promotes adult and embryonic stem cell research, but he does it with an ethical and moral framework."


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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:07pm
--

"I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people," Frist said. "We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.

--

So, are you saying Reeves and Kerry were not friends? Are you saying that Reeves did not endorse Kerry because of his beliefs (hopes) on this issue? Are you seeing any releatives of Reeves coming out and posting things like you are?

What was Edwards's lie again? Without knowing much more about this research, you can't really say one way or the other.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-11-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:08pm
Edwards was shameful in using the death of a fine man like Christopher Reeves to promote his own views. That is like saying if Reeves had been riding a different horse he would not have fallen. Only certain horses fall during jumping competitions. Bush's policy allows for private research and the use of existing cells. We have a lot of rich people like George Soros who could be funding research instead of spending his money on getting Kerry elected. What do we really know what Kerry thinks? Remember it is which ever way the people are thinking that day that Kerry or Edwards takes advantage of.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-04-2003
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:23pm
Edwards said, "people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."

Even Christopher Reeve himself said in a Reader's Digest interview that embryonic stem cells would NOT be able to cure an injury such as his.

President Bush's administration is the FIRST to offer ANY federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Yet Democrats try to create the impression that Bush has banned or severely limited such research. The only limit President Bush placed was limiting federal research funding to embryonic stem cell lines already in existence. There is no limit on the dollar amount of federal funding on this research. Nor is there a limit on privately funded research using new embryonic stem cell lines. From what I've read there is actually a lot more promise in the use of adult stem cells.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who was a heart surgeon, said research related to spinal cord injuries does not involve embryonic stem cells but rather adult stem cells, "where the president has absolutely no restrictions, no limitations and there are about 140 treatments."




iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:29pm
Again, my question is this: Reeves believed there was potential there (As does MJ Fox, Nancy Reagan) and supported Kerry for this belief. So, why is what Edwards said so wrong?

If someone from Reeves's family speaks out against what Edwards said, or even close friends of Reeves do, I would be inclined to agree. They are after all, the ones dealing with his loss directly.

Besides, I know what label Bush lovers would throw at Edwards if he attempted to make some sort of concession or apology with this statement :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:30pm


His lie is to say that "When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will be able to walk again." First of all, there is no ban on embryonic stem cell research, privately funded research is ongoing and is nowhere close to a cure for anything, and federally funded research on existing cell lines continues as well. It hasn't been used to treat a single human being. Adult stem cell research which is federally funded has shown much more promise. For Edwards to claim that Bush is somehow standing in the way of people with spinal cord injuries walking again in the next 4 or 8 years is an absolute lie and a slimy, manipulative one at that.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:34pm


He claimed that a Kerry presidency would mean a cure for spinal cord injuries, as well as Alzheimers and a host of other conditions-he's trying to mislead the country into thinking that these cures would be right around the corner if only President Bush would lift his (non-existent) ban on embryonic stem cell research. Both Christopher Reeve and the majority of scientists have acknowledged, they're nowhere close to any of that! It's a lie, and one preying on those most in need of hope. Edwards is a medical malpractice attorney, he is surely familiar enough with medicine to know how dishonest he's being. Despicable is exactly the right word, IMO.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 1:40pm
When ONE REEVES family member says the same thing or even close to it, I'll be inclined to agree.

But for now, this is just more of the usual blather that is behind Bush's ANTI-KERRY re-election campaign. The slightest ammo around is slung quicker than light travels. This after all talk about Soros and his crusade against Bush...

Talk about the Goth calling the Metal black.

It's going to take more than an anti-kerry campaign to get it done, the debates showed that beyond a doubt.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 2:07pm


That's your perogative, but I'm not even complaining about the fact that he used Reeve's name. Reeve did support ESCR and probably Kerry/Edwards. I'm complaining about the fact that he lied-there is no impending cure for spinal cord injury on the horizon from ESCR, no matter whether that research is federally funded or not. That's a lie, and with all due respect to Mr. Reeve and his family, he's not the only person in the world affected by Edwards' comments.



I don't want to get into a "I know you are but what am I" debate, but you don't think Edwards' comments amounted to slinging some ammo Bush's way? Accusing him of witholding cures from the paralyzed and those with Alzheimers's Parkinson's and other disorders? I have to disagree.


Edited 10/13/2004 2:10 pm ET ET by liveanew

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 2:13pm
Ah, but didn't Reeves call up Kerry before he died and say he hoped that they could continue their research?
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 2:19pm

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