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Rush: Michael J. Fox 'Victim' of Democrats
In her best-selling book "Godless," Ann Coulter writes that Democrats have hit on an ingenious strategy: "choose only messengers whom we are not allowed to reply to . . . you can't respond to them because that would be questioning the authenticity of their suffering." Rush Limbaugh has now run smack into that Democratic ploy, daring to question the authenticity of a political TV commercial concerning stem cell research featuring actor Michael J. Fox, a victim suffering from the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease, symptoms of which were painfully evident in the ad. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991. The disease is a chronic, progressive disorder of the central nervous system that leaves patients increasingly unable to control their movements. According to The Associated Press, in 30-second TV ads for Democratic Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, who is running for the Senate in Maryland, Senate Democratic candidate Claire McCaskill in Missouri, and Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, "Fox shakes and rocks as he directly addresses the camera, making no effort to hide the effects of his disease."
"Stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Fox says in the Maryland ad, his voice clear, but his head and body unsteady. "But George Bush and Michael Steele would put limits on the most promising stem cell research."
Story Continues Below Steele fired back that neither he nor the president wants to put limits of embryonic stem cell research, but only on government funding of the research which has frequently killed lab animals.
Moreover, critics charge that the Missouri ballot measure Democrats support allows for obtaining the embryos from human cloning.
In a new 60-second ad, St. Louis Cardinals' pitcher Jeff Suppan, joined several celebrities refuting Fox’s claims. The list includes Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, Kansas City Royals first baseman Mark Sweeney, and two actors — Patricia Heaton of TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond," and Jim Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ."
"Amendment 2 claims it bans human cloning, but in the 2,000 words you don't read, it makes cloning a constitutional right," Suppan says in the commercial. "Don't be deceived."
Amendment 2's backers claim it would provide constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research in Missouri. The 30-second spot featuring Fox, who sways uncontrollably in the ad due to his Parkinson's disease, is actually a commercial for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. Her Republican opponent, Sen. Jim Talent, opposes the stem cell measure.
Fox also has lent his voice to Democrats Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, running for the Senate in Maryland, and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, who is seeking re-election. Both politicians also back stem cell research.
"They say all politics is local, but it's not always the case," Fox says in the ad that began airing Saturday during game one of the World Series. "What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans — Americans like me."
Rush Limbaugh, along with experts on stem cell research, pointed to Fox's inaccuracies and distortions that were designed to help elect a Democratic senatorial candidate in a state where there is a ballot initiative approving funding of embryonic stem cell research.
And exactly as Ann Coulter had written, Rush was subjected to a firestorm of criticism for daring to question a man suffering from a terrible disease . . . suffering that his defenders suggest apparently makes him immune from attacks on his credibility.
In his initial remarks about Fox's appearance in the ad, Rush questioned the genuineness of Fox's symptoms as seen in the commercial, but has since apologized.
Explained Rush in his Tuesday broadcast, "Now, people are telling me that they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial for [Missouri Democratic senatorial candidate] Claire McCaskill. All right, then I stand corrected. I've seen him on "Boston Legal." I've seen him on a number of stand-up appearances. I know he's got it; it's pitiable that he has the disease. It is a debilitating disease, and I understand that fully."
He went on to say, " I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act, especially since people are telling me they have seen him this way on other interviews and in other television appearances."
Noting that he had used a 2004 campaign commercial by John Edwards on Tuesday's broadcast in which Edwards, whom he calls the "Breck Girl," said, "If we can do the work that we can do in this country, the work we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."
Said Rush, "That was about stem cells, and that was a misleading statement, and it didn't work for the Breck Girl, implying that if it weren't for George W. Bush and his stubbornness on stem cells, that we've got a cure for spinal deterioration and injury, and we don't.
"We do not have anywhere near a cure. We can't we regenerate nerves yet, folks, and that's what has to happen to cure paralysis in the spine. Stem cells do not promise any such thing, nor do they for Parkinson's disease. So the reason that I went and got the Breck Girl to compare it to Michael J. Fox is because I think the intent here is the thing."
He then went on the attack: "Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democrat politician," Rush charged. "Michael J. Fox is using his illness as a way to mislead voters into thinking that their vote for a single United States senator has a direct impact on stem cell research in Missouri. It doesn't, and it won't. So Mr. Fox is using his illness as another tactic to try to secure the election of a Democrat senator by implying that with her election, that we'll be on the road to stem cell research her opponent opposes and people who suffer from Parkinson's disease as he does will have a cure.
"All stem cell research is legal today in Missouri. Jim Talent does not seek to criminalize it, as Michael J. Fox asserts in his television commercial. The truth is, Amendment 2 would put human cloning in the Missouri Constitution. Michael J. Fox is participating in this disinformation campaign."
Rush cited a story at National Review Online "Doc Hollywood on the Campaign Trail; What Michael J. Fox Learned While on Spin City," in which she quotes Princeton professor Robert P. George, who sits on the president's bioethics commission, who says: 'I have great sympathy for Mr. Fox and other victims of Parkinson's and similarly horrible diseases. I understand how desperately he hopes for a cure for what afflicts him and so many others. I have seen members of my own family suffer, and I too want to hasten the day when the great engine of science conquers the diseases that cause so much suffering. But the fact that Mr. Fox is a victim is not a license for him to mislead or manipulate the public.
"'The truth — the whole truth — must be told. Those politicians who, for political gain, have run these ads in which the truth is distorted and people are misled deserve the most severe of reprimands. Win or lose, they have brought upon themselves disgrace.'"
Added Rush "That, ladies and gentlemen, is my whole point: that Mr. Fox is a victim is not a license for him to mislead or manipulate the public. The truth — the whole truth — must be told. Those politicians who for political gain have run these ads in which the truth is distorted and people are misled deserve the most severe of reprimands. Win or lose, they have brought upon themselves disgrace."
In an Oct. 23 story in Canada's Globe and Mail, researchers at the University of Rochester were said to have encountered what the newspaper called the "two extremes that have met in one dazzling, yet devastating experiment.
"Researchers there have for the first time essentially cured rats of a Parkinson's-like disease using human embryonic stem cells. But 10 weeks into the trial, they discovered brain tumors had begun to grow in every animal treated.
"Here we have this method that works so well to reverse the symptoms of Parkinson's," said lead investigator Steven Goldman, "But no matter how you look at it, it's an expanding mass and that's bad news."
Experts say that this has been the result in all cases when embryonic stem cells were used on lab animals. They develop tumors, some cancerous. Which is why no drug company will spend a dime on embryonic stem cell research. And why those who want to do the controversial research must rely on getting government funding.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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