NYTimes.com Article: Sisyphus in D.C.

[Guest guest]

This article from NYTimes.com

has been sent to you by swartz-lloyd@....

Interesting piece in yesterday's NYTimes for those who haven't seen it.

Tony from Boston

/-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\

Let NYTimes.com Come to You

Sign up for one of our weekly e-mails

and the news will come directly to you.

YOUR MONEY brings you a wealth of analysis

and information about personal investing.

CIRCUITS plugs you into the latest on

personal technology. TRAVEL DISPATCH offers

you a jump on special travel deals and news.

http://email.nytimes.com/email/email.jsp?eta5

\----------------------------------------------------------/

Sisyphus in D.C.

PUBLIC INTERESTS

By GAIL COLLINS

emember back when governors were trendy?

Christie Whitman left New Jersey to put a moderate Republican face

on the Environmental Protection Agency. Two humiliating rebuffs

from the White House later, she's vanished. Twenty years from now,

a schlock news show will open up a mysterious vault under the

Executive Office Building and discover Mrs. Whitman, typing memos

hopefully.

Tommy was going to turn the lumbering Department of

Health and Human Services into an innovative 21st-century service

center for the upwardly mobile poor — not a safety net, but a

trampoline! But lately, he's been complaining about how hard it is

to move the bureaucracy. " You know when I was governor, I'd have an

idea in the morning and I'd have people working on it in the

morning and have it partially implemented by the afternoon, " he

told The Washington Post. Now that he's in the cabinet, Mr.

has an idea in the morning and by afternoon he will have

had lunch.

Yesterday Secretary unveiled a reorganization of the

Health Care Financing Administration that was highlighted by a

promise of " a new climate of responsiveness " and an announcement

that the H.C.F.A. will henceforth be called Centers for Medicare

and Medicaid Services. Some of us were sorry to see that Mr.

had dropped the idea of calling it Medicare And Medicaid

Administration, or MAMA.

Next, the nation will get to see whether the secretary's previous

judgment about the importance of stem cell research trumps the

White House's judgment about the importance of the anti-abortion

lobby.

Scientists believe stem cells from human embryos may hold the key

to cures for everything from diabetes to Parkinson's disease. " This

is the wave of the future, " said Dr. Hendrix of the Federation

of American Societies for Experimental Biology. It's possible that

cells from adults may turn out to be just as useful, but

researchers are pushing for as much flexibility as possible.

They're supported by the disease organizations, and every celebrity

sufferer in the nation is prepared to testify before Congress.

The anti-abortion movement, meanwhile, is totally opposed to using

embryonic stem cells because the scientists have to destroy the

embryo in order to extract them. " We start with the principle that

each of these eggs is an individual member of the human species, "

said of the National Right to Life Committee.

Researchers get stem cells via fertility clinics, which dispose of

the unused fertilized eggs. Mr. said his organization felt

the eggs should be made available for adoption instead.

W. Bush sounded unenthusiastic about stem cell research

during the presidential campaign. Perhaps more to the point, there

are reports that Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, believes

that any failure to crack down could cost the administration

Catholic votes in 2004.

Mr. , who is Catholic and pro-life, was nevertheless

supportive of stem cell research when he was happily running

Wisconsin. A number of members of Congress feel the same way.

" Senator Thurmond's daughter has diabetes, but he would be

supportive of stem cell research even if that wasn't the case, "

said a spokeswoman for Strom Thurmond. Parsing the policy decisions

of a 98- year-old legislator are somewhat difficult, but the

spokeswoman said that Mr. Thurmond, although pro-life, felt that

" the advances in medicine that eventually could be achieved

outweigh having to use what would be discarded fertilized eggs. "

One thing you can say for Strom Thurmond — I doubt there's anyone

in Washington more interested in advances in medicine.

Mr. , who originally seemed to want to give the

researchers some leeway, has gone undercover pending further study

and the return of the Great Decider from Europe. But if President

Bush opts to oppose the scientists and makes his secretary deliver

the bad news, it will be an embarrassment of Christie Whitman

proportions.

" I've learned the hard way already, " Mr. confessed to a

newspaper back in Wisconsin. " You can't be quite as direct as I was

as governor. "

Maybe he and Mrs. Whitman could start a support group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/15/opinion/15COLL.html?ex=993617986 & ei=1 & en=4f17a\

808c1f80fff

/-----------------------------------------------------------------\

Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the

most authoritative news coverage on the Web,

updated throughout the day.

Become a member today! It's free!

http://www.nytimes.com?eta

\-----------------------------------------------------------------/

HOW TO ADVERTISE

---------------------------------

For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters

or other creative advertising opportunities with The

New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson

Racer at alyson@... or visit our online media

kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to

help@....

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company