More stem cell madness -- UPDATED

ANOTHER UPDATE: NO MOTION TODAY. WisPol budget blog reports there will be no action today. Wisconsin Right to Life seems to have jumped the gun and overplayed its hand. Budget blog

In a statement, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald said the budget was the wrong place for that kind of policy issue, and that a separate bill would be introduced soon. That will allow for involvement by the public, which supports stem cell research, but right-to-life groups have a lot of clout in the legislature. They may not have had enough to get 9 votes from Joint Finance, however, which would be another explanation for Fitzgerald's decision.

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Wisconsin Republicans continue their drive to be the most closed-minded, right wing ideologues in the country, with a new proposal now to stop or greatly restrict stem cell research.

State Sen. Scott (Gatsby) Fitzgerald says he will try to put a provision in the state budget to make it illegal to use taxpayer funds or state buildings for embryonic stem cell research, and would prohibit state employees from doing such research. Story.

Like the Taxpayer Bill of Rights proposal from last summer, Fitzgerald's idea is one that hasn't even been written down yet, but he could ask Joint Finance to vote on it today. That would conveniently prevent any public input, since the public overwhelming supports embryonic stem cell research.

UPDATE: In case you had any doubt about who's driving this issue, the WisPolitics budget blog reports: There's a light agenda today, but it could get complicated as Wisconsin Right to Life and sympathetic legislators are pushing committee members to introduce a motion that would prohibit the use of state funds or facilities for stem cell research. But a source close to the committee said while the motion could be brought up during deliberations on the Building Commission budget, there's no certainty that it will be. "Right to Life kind of jumped the gun yesterday with those press releases because nothing is even drafted," said the source. "We don't know what the motion really does, and we don't even know if there's nine votes to get it out of committee."

What's especially stupid about Wisconsin Repubs taking this hard line is that Wisconsin is a pioneer in embryonic stem cell research, on the cutting edge, and could benefit greatly from it. The research will be done somewhere. The more barriers they erect in Wisconsin, the more the money, the research, and the jobs will go to other states, which have noted the dawn of the 21st Century.

It's not fair to lump all Republicans together on this, although Assembly Republicans were almost unanimous in adopting an amendment prohibiting companies which did such research from receiving economic development tax credits from the state.

Rep. Dean Kaufert , who co-chairs Joint Finance with Fitzgerald, said he opposes Fitzgerald's idea.

"I'm holding out hope that this type of research unlocks the door to find the cure for a lot of things," he said. "I understand where people want to put a firewall between taxpayer money and private investment, but . . . there's a lot of promise and hope with this research, and I'm not going to stand in the way."

Fitzgerald and Co. are responding to the hard core anti-abortion fanatics who somehow believe that embryos are little babies waiting to be born. In fact, there are 400,000 surplus embryos which will be destroyed -- not adopted -- if the donors do not agree to let them be used for research.

Embryonic stem cell research holds the promise of improving, prolonging, and perhaps even saving the lives of people suffering from Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries, diabetes and a host of other serious health problems for people who already have been born.

Let's hope there are enough rational Republicans in the legislature to defeat this short-sighted proposal. If not, of course, there's always the veto, which Gov. Doyle will use in a heartbeat.