Lots of news afoot.

As for Trent Lott: he should resign as majority leader. I doubt he’ll do so on his own. I’d suggest that Mr. Ashcroft, a former colleague whom Lott presumably respects, should ask Mr. Lott to do the right thing.

Why should Lott resign?

1. Thurmond’s platform in 1948 was segregation. It was wrong then and now. Lott’s comments are a clear endorsement of segregation and, as such wrong in and of themselves. Lott’s public comments have not acknowledged that. He’s playing as much of an unrepentant wrong-doer with self-serving spin as did Mr. Clinton a few years ago. Those who called on Mr. Clinton to resign are morally obligated to be consistent in calling for Mr. Lott’s resignation.
2. The last thing Lott’s party needs is to have a visible member that can credibly be characterized as a segregationist. He’s hurting his party tactically. No party leader can do that in good conscience.
3. Mr. Lott is retroactively endorsing a candidate of another party against the candidate of his own party. That lack of party loyalty is unbecoming in a party leader.

As for Stanford’s clone factory: it’s a sad milestone, and one of many. As the story mentions, U of Wisconsin and UCSF are already doing the same thing on a smaller scale. The State of California is officially encouraging this type of research. I’d be surprised if the med schools of UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine don’t jump on the bandwagon soon.

What is to be done?

How about tighter federal restrictions on use of human tissue in research?

How about action at the state level (hard to do in both CA and WI given their political climates, but still important) to recognize the dangers inherent in this type of research?

How about the Church getting her affairs in order well enough to have credibility in speaking to the general public on this issue? (A man can dream, can’t he?)

And huzzah for the Most Catholic Kingdom of Spain!