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Posted: Thursday, 25 May 2006 7:31PM
Bloomberg Says Science Under Attack in Stem-Cell Debate
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned medical school graduates Thursday that centuries of progress in scientific research are under attack by those who oppose stem cell research and dispute evolution and global warming.
The comments were Bloomberg's latest in a steady stream that aligns him more with the Democrats than his own party. In recent weeks he has railed against the National Rifle Association, championed abortion rights and parted with Republican leadership on immigration.
Bloomberg unleashed the newest barrage during a commencement speech at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied engineering. He said gains made in research are threatened by ``people who simply disregard facts that don't happen to agree with their agenda.''
The idea of this mayor splitting with the national Republican party is hardly new, and throughout his re-election campaign in this overwhelmingly Democratic city last year, his strategists were eager to paper over his Republican label.
They created a group called Democrats for Bloomberg, lined up endorsements from supporters like NARAL-Pro Choice New York, an abortion rights organization, and scheduled a parade of appearances with popular Democrats. Bloomberg himself is a relatively new Republican since he switched parties in 2001 for his first mayoral run.
In his second term, the mayor -- who admits giving money to candidates in both parties -- has grown increasingly bold about saying when he differs with the GOP. Just this week he said lawmakers who want to deport all illegal immigrants are ``living in a fantasy world.''
During an interview Wednesday on Fox News, he was asked whether he was at odds with his own party.
``With which party?'' he shot back, adding, ``I'm not a partisan guy.''
Despite Bloomberg's political wandering, Republican National Committee leaders ``are supportive of Mayor Bloomberg, while recognizing that we don't always agree with one another on every single issue,'' spokesman Aaron McLear said Thursday.
In his speech, Bloomberg ticked off a list of scientific concerns, beginning with global warming.
The issue is attracting renewed attention from former President Clinton and is the subject of a new documentary by his vice president, Al Gore. Meanwhile, President Bush acknowledges that climate change is a real problem but questions the extent to which manmade pollutants are responsible.
Bloomberg said those on that side of the debate are ``driven by ideology and short-term economics,'' according to a transcript of his speech given to reporters at New York City Hall.
He then ridiculed the campaign to teach schoolchildren about ``intelligent design'' alongside evolution. The belief proposes that living organisms are so complex that they must have been created by some type of higher force, and many conservatives, including Bush, say schools should present both concepts.
The mayor said children who learn it are receiving an inferior education that puts them at a disadvantage later.
He told the medical students that they share the same burden carried by the school's first graduates more than 100 years ago, when the field was ``dominated by quacks and poorly trained physicians.''
Their task, Bloomberg said, is to ``defend the integrity and power of science.''
The billionaire mayor has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the school, where the public health division bears his name.
Most recently, he gave $100 million, part of which goes to support research at the medical school's Institute for Cell Engineering. The school does some of its research with embryonic stem cells -- a politically controversial process because it destroys the embryo, which is considered human life by many religious conservatives. Bush has restricted federal spending on the process.
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© MMVI The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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