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April 22, 2002 4:20 p.m. Not Just Jeb Republicans vs. the National Governors Association.

eb Bush isn't the only Republican governor who's concerned about the liberal tendencies of the National Governors Association. Colorado governor Bill Owens tells me, "Jeb Bush is exactly right. The National Governors Association has an anti-administration agenda. . . . I think this is largely staff-driven, and I think the NGA staff is composed from top to bottom of people whose views are at odds with the administration."

Owens says he has no plans of withdrawing from the organization. He adds, however, that "whenever Republican governors get together, there's discussion" about leaving it.

The NGA is having financial as well as political trouble. Ray Sheppach, its executive director, recently wrote an internal memo noting that next year's budget "reflects a decrease in total revenue of $549,200." The NGA is having "collection problems. . . with a number of states not paying the full dues amount or making any payment whatsoever." Sheppach writes that he assumes the problem will grow next year. The recession, which has put strain on overextended state budgets, is probably the biggest reason for the collection problems. But paying back dues to the NGA may not be the first priority for a lot of states as they emerge from the recession-at least, those states with Republican governors.

PENSION POLITICS
An article in the Los Angeles Times bemoaning the absence of "pension reforms": i.e., policies to reverse the expansion of 401(k)s over the last generation. The article reflects the liberal assumptions-presented as an uncontroversial fact-that tax breaks for 401(k)s are a special favor from the government and that there is therefore no ground in principle to object to regulating them. And speaking of the passing off of partisan points of view as objective truths: Someone should tell reporter Peter Gosselin that Mark Mellman is not just a "top Washington pollster" but a top Democratic Washington pollster. But ignore the liberal advocacy. The interesting thing that Gosselin has discovered is that the AFL-CIO is opposing some proposed regulations of 401(k)s-and is opposing them in part because too many of its members like their 401(k)s. More evidence that the expansion of the investor class is having a pro-market effect on American politics.

CLONING: THE POLLS
Kellyanne Conway has just conducted a poll of 807 adults for Stop Human Cloning, William Kristol's group. Her main finding: 63 percent of adults express agreement when told that President Bush opposes both reproductive cloning ("that is cloning with the goal of creating a child") and research cloning ("which involves the creation of cloned human embryos for the purpose of destroying them to retrieve stem cells from the embryos for medical experiments"). Forty-eight percent say they "strongly agree."

Another poll question presents two views without attributing them to anyone in particular. "Person 1 supports human cloning to allow science and research to pursue cures to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes and Parkinson's. Person 1 is opposed to cloning for creation of human beings, but supports cloning for creation of human embryos, which would be destroyed when used for medical research. Person 2 agrees that it is important to use science and research to cure diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes and Parkinson's, but says that there are more ethical ways, like through the use of adult stem cells. Person 2 says it is wrong to create human embryos for the specific purpose of destroying them, even in medical research."

When presented with the positions in this form, 59 percent agreed with Person 2 and 26 percent with Person 1. The intensity differential was especially striking: There were more people "strongly" opposed to cloning (38 percent) than there were people who supported it at all.

When asked whether they would be more or less likely to vote for a candidate if they "knew he or she supported making legal the cloning of human embryos for medical experimentation," 60 percent said that they would be less likely and 21 percent that they would be more likely.

Women were especially likely to oppose cloning: 53 percent of them "strongly" agreed with the president's position.