Plunderbund

As tons and tons of great news pours in for liberal and progressive voters in Ohio, I find myself more and more disgusted with politics.

First, Strickland continues to pull away from the divisive Ken Blackwell, and the result we get is some really sleazy mudslinging from not just “conservative” bloggers, but from Blackwell’s campaign and the Ohio GOP.

Now, as we get news that Brown has opened a 20 point lead over DeWine, and that Fox is coming to support Brown, we get this tripe from RABid:

Mike Fox’s attack ad plays on the hopes and fears of Americans who want serious diseases to be cured. Now, Fox’s smear campaign is coming to Ohio to attack Mike DeWine. Fox should be ashamed for cheapening his cause with sleazy political activism.

Are you kidding me? Michael J. Fox isn’t the one politicizing science. He’s done ads supporting Republican candidates who support stem cell research. He’s been clear to note that the research doesn’t promise a cure - it gives hope. In fact, a number of prominent Republicans, including Nancy Reagan, Bill Frist, Mitt Romney, and Arlen Specter, support expanded embryonic stem cell research.

Do you want to know what politicizing science is? It’s stonewalling the approval of Plan B, in opposition to scientific research. It’s the entire push to put “intelligent design” into science classes. It’s Terry Schiavo, and the rush for specialized legislation. It’s trying to defund competitive research grants because you don’t like what they are researching. It’s voting to condemn a scientific study not because it’s bad science, but because you don’t like the conclusion that many children who have sexual contact with an adult go on to have normal adult lives.

It’s intentionally overlooking the fact that embryonic stem cells could be cultivated for research, with many extra to spare, simply by using the already discarded embryos from fertility treatments. It’s intentionally obfuscating the fact that virtually no “discovery science” is funded by private industry, only applied science. It’s calling an ad by a man suffering from a terrible disease asking for you to support candidates who support stem cell research a “smear campaign”.

Unlike Fox’s plea for the public to support candidates who support stem cell research, this kind of crap RABid is pulling really is sleazy and disgusting. They are wrong on the facts, most of America knows this, and so instead of arguing the facts (they can’t), they attack the messenger. It’s what they always do. And I’m tired of it.

And apparently so is the rest of Ohio.