Sunday showdown: Both parties look to sway fence-sitters for this weekend's healthcare vote 
Click to Print
Include Comments
Specter on Kemp and cancer
As we noted yesterday, Jack Kemp died of cancer Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, Sen. Arlen Specter, who switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican last week, incredibly used Kemp’s death to illustrate a point on Face the Nation about his dissatisfaction with the GOP and its health care priorities (see video below):
“If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”
Shades of John Edwards and his comments in 2004 about stem cell research that exploited the death of paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve.
Topic: Religion, WorldMagBlog
Keywords: cancer research, republican
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
back to top36 Comments to “Specter on Kemp and cancer”
Specter thinks he owes his life to medical research, and hopes that others will be cured or successfully treated through more of the same. it’s a good hope, shared by pro-life people of good will.
Report comment to moderator
Endless research for cancer cure and Specter thinks it should be cured by now?
Diabetes, heart disease, MS, Muscular Dystrophy these are all diseases without cure.
Does Specter believe that GOD decides. Yes man can research, but it will be GOD’s timing not little man.
Report comment to moderator
What a self-serving, opportunistic, fatuous thing for Specter to say. The guy has no dignity.
Report comment to moderator
So, the Republicans are to blame for cancer now?
Report comment to moderator
In matters of life and death, dignity is beside the point, don’t you think? Besides, Specter’s point is a natural one, which doesn’t depend on Specter. Every real Republican voted against the stim. It’s now perfectly fair to argue that Republicans didn’t stand for life, when they had a chance — certainly just as fair as it was for Republicans to accuse Obama of infanticide.
Report comment to moderator
Random mutations and cell proliferative disorders are to blame for cancer. Republicans are to blame for voting against the stim.
Report comment to moderator
Specter is grand-standing – he isn’t through yet, after switching parties so that he would save his seat, he is now throwing himself in the mix regarding Jack Kemp’s death – its disgraceful.
Report comment to moderator
So it is the contention of the people on this blog that the Republican party has in fact offered sufficient support and funding to cancer research? Is that the general point being made?
Report comment to moderator
Mynock
I know for a fact that many conservatives have given millions to cancer research – they have raised incredible amounts of money.
Because there is NO CURE as yet, does not mean nothing has been done, or is being accomplished.
Report comment to moderator
Victoria, is that a no? You are not arguing that the Republican Party–not “many conservatives”–has provided suffiecient support and funding for cancer research? After all, Specter has broken with the Republican Party, he hasn’t–as far as I know–come out with any scathing criticisms of “many conservatives” yet.
Report comment to moderator
Mynock – research has been an on-going project for years. Because there is no complete cure for cancer, doesn’t mean that double the money will solve the problem.
Specter jumping on this wagon right after Jack Kemps death doesn’t serve him well, but then what would we expect.
Report comment to moderator
Whenever anything bad happens the Democrats shout “if only we have been given more money this wouldn’t have happened”. They don’t seem to get that there is any limit to the money available.
Report comment to moderator
Mickey,
I know you guys are busy at World and don’t have time to look at all the posts on all the threads. But don’t you at least look at your own threads? If you did, you’d see that I scooped you on this by about 3 hours and 15 minutes, on your Jack Kemp Dies thread. Since I’m at 8.32 minutes of fame, and still have 6.28 minutes to go to hit my 15 minute maximum, I think a hat tip was/is in order. If not I’ll just hold steady at the 8.32 mark. But I won’t be happy.
Report comment to moderator
Victoria, there is a direct proportionate causal relationship between money spent on research and cures developed. That’s not disputable. Your argument relies on a complete logical distortion. While it might be true that we cannot guarantee that X dollars invested will lead to a “whole sale cure”–which is a term that probably doesn’t mean anything– by Y date, it is not possible to sensibly argue with Specter’s main point. More progress would have been made–progress that could have help Kemp–had the Republican Party not thrown up barriers to funding cancer research. That’s on face true.
And even if we give your “argument” a disproportionate amount of rhetorical force, that is if we count it for something, that wouldn’t make Republican opposition to cancer research any less unethical nor would it invalidate Specter’s personal feelings of frustration at Republican foot-dragging.
And Kbells, you’re over-generalizing diatribe misses a few key points. First being that nothing bad has happened to the Democrats. It’s your party not ours that has lost a great thinker. And also, it’s in our economic interest to fund medical research–not only because such cures are worth a fortune–but also because it costs the state, the medical industry, and the tax payers a fortune every time some dies of cancer.
Report comment to moderator
mynock
I believe medical research should be funded by private sector – most charitable contributions are given by conservatives, which tend to be Repbulican. Most of the finest hospitals are private, being built by those who are either Christian, or Jewish – there was no tax dollar, it was private money.
One of my aunts was president of the Cancer society charity in Southern CA – those who supported, donated huge amounts of money were Republicans. I believe private money will solve far more than when government gets involved, draining the funds by adminstrative costs.
Report comment to moderator
Well said, Victoria. It is a well known FACT that Christians, and many of them conservatives, are the most charitable with money and time. May God get all the glory.
Report comment to moderator
Random mutations and cell proliferative disorders are to blame for cancer.
So cancer is my fault now? Somebody please ban this poster for personal attacks.
I don’t know if stem cell reseach might or might not help cure cancer. Why are people so excited about stem cell research?
Report comment to moderator
As we lie ke to say Down South: I wouldn’t vote for Arlen Spector for Dawg Catcher. The man openly admitted on Meet The Press yesterday morning that he did some polling and decided he needed to change parties. He was not going to let the Republican Party “rob” him of his seat. Nice to see that when the going gets tough the entitled get going.
Report comment to moderator
Isn’t that something, Kim? When Republicans vote some one out of office, it’s robbery! WOW!
Report comment to moderator
KIM and BROTHERDAN, you’re talking like you think Republican primary voters of Pennsylvania are entitled to the seat. They aren’t even entitled to have Specter beg them for the nomination, so they have nothing to whine about. They’ll pick Toomey or whomever they wish to represent them in defeat in the general election.
Specter doesn’t matter. The real defectors are 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans who have switched parties. That’s something to cry about. Whether Democrats want Specter is an open question, but at least he’s willing to submit to the Democratic primary (unlike Lieberman was for example).
Report comment to moderator
“Specter thinks he owes his life to medical research”
Specter’s recovery predated Kemp’s cancer. There is no evidence that the stimulus bill would have provided funds that otherwise would not be avaialable to pay for the specific research that might have saved Jack Kemp’s life. To blame Republicans for Kemp’s cancer death is as absurd as it is shameful.
“there is a direct proportionate causal relationship between money spent on research and cures developed. That’s not disputable.”
Yes it is. Extra dollars = more cures is not directly proportionate. Some research money is necessary. After a point, greater avaialble funds do not generate more ideas, or release more labs with more competent technicians to run additional experiments with different protocols for differnt trials, nor do they automatically generate other medical knowledge that suggest new medical paradigms that can lead to new discoveries. Most of these require something other than mere money.
It is also debatable that spending money that will have to be repaid from some as yet unknown source at some unknown future date is the locked down gaurantee of the best way to finance cancer research.
Report comment to moderator
Specter blames Republicans for opposing the stim, but he doesn’t blame Kemp’s death on their opposition to the stim, which passed without (real) Republicans. Specter blames Kemp’s death on Republican’s failure to support Nixon’s objective of a war on cancer, because he thinks more research would have cured additional kinds of cancer.
Let’s hope there is a causal link between the Republican philosophy of government and our failure to cure cancer, because that means we can fix it by taxing, borrowing, and spending on elite scentists who look down their noses on faith-based fatalism.
Report comment to moderator
Report comment to moderator
Mickey and his fellow conservative Christians are of course, livid that Senator Spector left Their Precious! (aka: the Republican Party). So they’re striking back at him in the best way they know – a personal attack. It’s all so “Christ-like” isn’t it?
Report comment to moderator
Anlir
This might flip you out, but Specter is NO LOSS – By the way, Specter is spelled with an “e” not an “o” – LOL
Report comment to moderator
Specter is NO LOSS
As I’ve been saying for awhile now, if you aren’t a fundamentalist or a conservative Christian, you should get out of the GOP before they throw you out. The fanatics have taken over and they are hell-bent on purifying the GOP of all but the true believers. The GOP is God’s Own Party now!
The Party of America (the Democratic Party) welcomes you!
Report comment to moderator
Anlir, if you are not for killing unborn babies, homosexual marriage, appeasement of our enemies, you better get out of the Decomrat party!
Report comment to moderator
Victoria–
Fine, you’re opinion is perfectly valid. But that opinion doesn’t invalidate Specter’s critique of the party. If you are willing to call those who die of cancer while researchers plod along restricted to private funds a necessary casualty of your tax ideologies–so be it. But you should recognize that Specter and the majority of Americans have a legitimate disagreement with you. And a valid opinion might also be unethical.
No Ken it’s really not–
Not surprisingly, you the more obvious point by trying to play games. If you want to argue that the United State (either by collective private or public sources) has funded cancer research so much that we now face diminishing returns, it is going to be your burden to back that claim up with any kind of factual evidence. Meanwhile, we have never ever–in the entire history research–seen more cures developed as the direct result of spending less money researching them! And no, that is not disputable!
Report comment to moderator
Re: Republicans glad to be rid of Specter
Conservatives are licking their own wounds like a jaded ex by pretending that they didn’t need “that loser” anyway! I’ll point you to one of the best written responses to GOP denial by a CONSERVATIVE and well respected Republican Professor of election law:
Bradley Smith Writes:
Now that Specter’s gone, Republican conservatives can focus on the real enemy: Senators Collins and Snowe.
You can read the whole MATURE response here: >> http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Bradley_A__Smith_8AE441A1-7A42-499B-BC75-2DB9DAAEAD80.html
Report comment to moderator
no I am talking like the PA voters don’t owe Spector ANYthing. He ought to stay TRepublican and take his lumps. If that means he loses to a Democrat so be it.
Report comment to moderator
Leaving a party and then blaming cancer on that party is pretty low, but Spector hits a new low every week.
Nevertheless, there is still quite a long way to fall on the sleaze scale. As far as we know Spector pays his taxes, which automatically makes him a bit of an outsider among Democrats.
If Spector really wants to be guaranteed re-election, he needs to become gay, run a prostitution ring out of his house and help trash the economy, like Barney Frank did. That will make him virtually unbeatable among Democrats.
Report comment to moderator
Xion – 31
YOU WROTE: “If Spector really wants to be guaranteed re-election, he needs to become gay, run a prostitution ring out of his house and help trash the economy, like Barney Frank did. That will make him virtually unbeatable among Democrats.”
Come on Xion, those sort of comments are off the wall, you know better – whatever he might be, you don’t need to throw every sin you can think of at him …. what are you trying to prove?
By the way it’s Specter with an “e” not an “o” – three times #31 is not a typo – lol
Report comment to moderator
#32 If you were from Massachusetts you’d understand.
Report comment to moderator
And reasonable discussion has now officially stopped!
Report comment to moderator
30. Maybe he will lose to a republican.
Report comment to moderator
Mynock: …there is a direct proportionate causal relationship between money spent on research and cures developed. That’s not disputable.
I’m disputing it now. Please back this up just a little bit. Your assetion in #28 that the opposite is false doesn’t validate your initial assertion.
Mynock again: So it is the contention of the people on this blog that the Republican party has in fact offered sufficient support and funding to cancer research? Is that the general point being made?
I can’t speak for anyone else, but it’s my opinion that Republican politicians have spent entirely too much of other people’s money on cancer research.
And, why is it the responsibility of the United States to cure every disease? There seems to be this idea that any research left unfunded by the People of the United States will never be done, and the whole world will suffer for it.
Report comment to moderator
back to topJoin The Conversation
You need to be a registered user of WORLDonTheWeb.com to "join the conversation."
If you are not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Register / Login Now!