As the Hearings Proceed…
BY Dave Andrusko

It is both inescapable and challenging: publishing a few days before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge John Roberts begin, what can be said that won’t run the risk of being hopelessly outdated, largely irrelevant, or flat-out wrong? Let me offer a few observations which I hope will avoid these pitfalls before briefly addressing two other subjects.

In the story about Judge Roberts that appears on page one, I end by quoting an all-purpose attack launched by Barry Lynn, appearing on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. Because Judge Roberts is scary bright, squeaky clean, and shows no signs of being anything other than an exemplary Supreme Court justice, the Rev. Lynn was reducing to offering vague, almost entirely content-free charges.

I was instantly reminded of those heretofore undetected “penumbras” and “emanations” that Justice William Douglas’s fertile imagination found in the interstices of the Constitution and which Justice Harry Blackmun later drafted into the service of his campaign to find an equally indiscernible “right” to abortion.

If, like me, you haven’t a clue what these terms mean, let me quote author Mark Levin’s explanation: “A penumbra is an astronomical term describing the partial shadow in an eclipse or the edge of a sunspot—and it is another way to describe something unclear or uncertain. ‘Emanation’ is a scientific term for gas made from radioactive decay—it also means ‘an emission.’”

A movement comfortable with resting its case on wholly imaginary legal footing is not about to worry about intellectual rigor or accuracy, let alone fairness. Don’t be surprised if the hearings get very, very testy.
As I re-read Lynn’s charges, it brought to mind the now-ancient debate over what were called MIRVs—Multiple Independently-launched Re-entry Vehicles. Each of these missiles could carry a large number of independently targeted warheads.

I suspect that’s what will happen when the verbal silos are open and one by one the hyper-pro-abortionists on the Senate Judiciary Committee—Schumer, Durbin, Biden, et al.—are launched. I suspect that by the time Sen. Kennedy gets through caricaturing Judge Roberts, not even Roberts’ own mother will recognize him.
Turning to a much more enjoyable topic, I would strongly encourage you to read the article on page 25. Without offering even a partial list of all the amazing discoveries of the last decade, suffice it to say that a great deal of what scientists and researchers thought they knew about the human body’s enormous capacity for self-repair has been proven wrong.

The irony here is that almost all the discussion is centered on the area least likely to pan out: extracting stem cells from human embryos, either “left over” at fertility clinics or manufactured/cloned. In truth, sources other than embryos (collectively called “adult” stem cells) are, intuitively and experientially, much more promising.

The story on page 25 talks about how researchers in Texas and Britain have developed techniques to remove mature cells from umbilical cord blood, isolating a few cells called cord blood-derived embryonic-like cells (CBEs). These versatile cells could potentially be used to treat conditions that some had insisted could only be helped by killing embryos for their stem cells.

Our job remains debunking the myths about embryonic stem cells and getting the truth out about ethically unobjectionable alternatives.

And just a word about the retirement of NRLC Political Director Carol Tobias, which we write about on page one. Carol was and is the real deal.

Bright, savvy, personable, patient, politically astute, and just plain decent, Carol’s leadership will be missed. But not missed half as much as we will miss her as a friend and colleague.

Working in the Movement—as you all know—is tremendously rewarding but at times it can be enormously difficult. During those times that test men’s (and women’s) souls, Carol was unflappable.

Where I would be tempted to be cranky, Carol was cheerful. Where I might be given to panic, Carol was calm. Where I might ignore the better angels of my nature, Carol always had them front and center.

It has been a privilege to work with her.

Carol’s successor is another pro-life dynamo, Karen Cross. Our gain is West Virginia’s loss.

Keep Carol and Karen and all of us at NRLC in your prayers, as we will you.

Be sure to keep up to date on all breaking news by visiting www.nrlc.org.