The Republican Credo...

"When in doubt - lie!"

SCIENCE -- EXPERTS RIP ROVE'S STEM CELL REMARKS:

Senior Bush aide Karl Rove waded into deeply contentious scientific territory, telling the Denver Post's editorial board that researchers have found "far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells."

According to scientific experts, the field of stem cell medicine is too young and unproven to make such judgments. "[Rove's] statement is just not true ," said Dr. Michael Clarke, associate director of the stem cell institute at Stanford University, who in 2003 published the first study showing how adult stem cells replenish themselves.

If opponents of embryonic stem cell research object on moral grounds, "I'm willing to live with that," Clarke said, though he disagrees. But, he said, "I'm not willing to live with statements that are misleading."

Dr. Markus Grompe, director of the stem cell center at the Oregon Health and Science University, said there is "no factual basis to compare the promise "of adult stem cells and cells taken from embryos. White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said yesterday he could not provide the name of a stem cell researcher who shares Rove's views on the superior promise of adult stem cells.

From ThinkProgress.org