Judging from the stem cell vote, it looks like the Republican right is still predominant, even if there has been some erosion on this issue and a lot of Republicans shifting positions:
In the Senate, 43 Democrats, 19 Republicans and one independent voted to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research, while 36 Republicans and one Democrat -- Ben Nelson (Neb.) -- voted against it.
First of all, what the heck is up with Ben Nelson? Second, the above vote tally inspires me to include a point of clarification. When I introduced the phrase "Republican War on Science" into the discourse--and it has since gotten around quite a great deal--I never meant to suggest that every single last Republican was somehow "anti-science." I only meant to argue that there was something about the GOP, as presently constituted, which tended to make a "war on science" an inevitable outcome when this ...
