Cox News Service, back in June of this year:

President Bush vetoed a measure Wednesday that would have undone restrictions he placed on federal funding of stem-cell research, setting up the issue for the 2008 presidential race. In a Tuesday e-mail from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said, “Tomorrow, with a single stroke of his cruel veto pen, President Bush will dash the hopes of millions of Americans seeking cures through the miracle of stem-cell research.” The e-mail included a pitch for funds and a vow to continue battling against Bush. The vetoed bill was a Democratic attempt to undo a restriction, enacted by Bush in August 2001, that limited federal support of embryonic stem cell research to cells then in existence. Private organizations and states are under no such restrictions. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and a leading Democratic presidential contender, said in a speech Wednesday that the veto was “just one more example as to why we’re going to send (Republicans) packing in January 2009 and return progressive leadership to the White House.”

Today’s News:

Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
Laboratory teams on two continents report success in a pair of landmark papers released Tuesday. It’s a neck-and-neck finish to a race that made headlines five months ago, when scientists announced that the feat had been accomplished in mice.

Today’s breakthrough is a big reason to celebrate… unless you saw fetal stem cell research as a useful wedge issue in 2008.