It should be understood that I don’t think much of this as a Sistah Souljah moment for Frist, just as I don’t think much of Frist (except as an exceptional human being who spends his time away from the Senate doing surgeries on children in Africa). It is only that I discern among those who oppose embryonic stem-cell research a conviction that it is an issue that will resonate as abortion does and that those who take a different stem-cell view will be viewed as tantamount to pro-choicers among conservatives. That just isn’t going to be the case, and all the Talmudic-Jesuitic hair-splitting you can come up with won’t change that fact.
And again, Kate, your presumption that this moment will be seen by conservatives as demonstrating that Frist isn’t with them requires logically that conservatives are unanimous in their conviction that embryonic stem-cell research is an evil. Even if they did believe this now, I think the more they are told of the potential wonders of embryonic stem-cell usage, the less they will believe it.