Despite efforts of the Republican Party to sidestep the issue, the House's passage of a bill securing funding for embryonic stem cell research has only piqued the interest of the millions of supporters of the science and the small minority that stringently opposes it. As The Hill's Peter Savodnik reports, it is an issue that will not likely go away before the next election.

Many members of Congress say staking out a position on embryonic-stem-cell research is a personal issue, often shaped by family tragedy that defies the standard, abortion-rights divide.

But to conservative activists angered by Republicans who backed Tuesday night’s measure to increase federal funding of stem-cell research, voting yes for the bill was little more than betrayal. Democrats, too, suggested the vote could influence tight races in 2006.

“I think it will affect a number of congressmen who previously were thought of as pro-life, and now you’re going to find groups like ours that send out scorecards … and they’re no longer 100 percent,” Tom McClusky, director of government affairs at the Family Research Council, said yesterday.

Groups on the fringe right were not the only ones paying attention yesterday. Savodnik further notes,

But a Democratic leadership aide said at least two Republicans — Reps. Dave Reichert of Washington and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — could face some trouble for opposing the measure.

“I think at the end of the day it is going to end up being one of the more politically important votes that are taken this Congress,” the aide said.

Though the bill clearly has the votes for passage in the Senate, the Republican leadership has been dragging its feet. As a result, Patrick O'Connor reports for The Hill that conservative Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) -- who actually supports the bill -- went to the floor today to goad his party into action.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) implored his colleagues yesterday to take up a bill that would expand federal funding for research into embryonic stem cells.

[...]

“I respect President Bush’s views on this issue,” Hatch said in his statement. “But I know, as a long-standing pro-life Senator, that it is possible to be both anti-abortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research.”

As The New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports in tomorrow's paper, stem-cell supporters claim to have a margin in the Senate could even override a veto by the President.

Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican and chief sponsor of a bill to expand federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research, issued a stark challenge to President Bush on Wednesday, saying he had enough votes in the Senate to override a presidential veto of the measure.

"I don't like veto threats, and I don't like statements about overriding veto threats," Mr. Specter said, speaking at a news conference where the House backers of the measure presented him the legislation, which passed the House on Tuesday, topped with a red bow.

"But if a veto threat is going to come from the White House, then the response from the Congress is to override the veto, if we can," Mr. Specter added. "Last year we had a letter signed by some 58 senators, and we had about 20 more in the wings. I think if it really comes down to a showdown, we will have enough in the United States Senate to override a veto."

Down the line, this is a winning issue for the Democrats. By defending science that could save millions of lives against a small minority swayed by an orthodox dogma, Democrats can show that they indeed have a strong sense of morality. Come 2006, it will be very interesting to watch the Republican leadership and President Bush try to defend this position.