WASHINGTON – President Bush will issue his first veto in six years in the Oval Office if the Senate approves legislation to expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, White House political guru Karl Rove said yesterday.
“The president is emphatic about this,” Rove told The Denver Post, according to a report on the paper’s Web site. “I am confident that the president’s veto will be easily sustained, if it comes to that.”
The House has already passed the legislation, and the Senate is expected to take it up this week. Lawmakers predict the measure will sail through with nearly 60 votes.
But Bush has been adamant in his opposition to expanding embryonic research.
And while supporters note that stem cells may help unlock scientific breakthroughs, Rove contends that “we ought to, as a society, be very careful about being callous about the wanton destruction of embryos, of life.”