Frist Flips Flops On Fetuses

According to Modern America, a socially conservative-yet staunchly Democratic-blog, the Republican leader of the senate, Bill Frist, is guilty of flip flopping on the issue of stem cell research. On Friday morning the Tennessee senator delivered a solemn speech in support of federal funding for the expansion of Embryonic Stem Cell Research, a practice that involves experiments on the stem cells of discarded embryos at fertility clinics.

Nevertheless, it seems to me, that educated citizens will be hard pressed to denounce Frist's endorsement as politically motivated, as the senator is a doctor, who has announced support for stem cell research in the past, before he was elected majority leader and before he was seriously considering the presidency (of course, assuming that every senator factors the possible run for presidency into their statements is not unreasonable).

Of course, it would seem too idealistic to think that a man with power, who could use some more, would simply substitute conscience for politics. Would his patient loving heart overrule his politically-savvy brain that tells him that disguising stem cell research as a "moral issue" is as easy as getting an endorsement from Rush Limbaugh?

The more Frists' intellectualism shows, the more his destiny becomes similar to another maverick, John McCain, who cannot get the support of the Republican base that is needed to win a presidential election. Will Republicans continue to call Frist their "party leader" or their "party traitor"?