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I was disappointed to see that Congress was unable to override President Bush's veto of the Stem Cell Research bill that had passed on both houses. We need to move forward into this promising area of scientific research, and the best way to do it is through federal funding and government grants.

I find it ironic that President Bush has more concern for left-over microscopic embryos destined for destruction than he does for living human beings -- be they people suffering from ailments that stem cell research might help, or our good military men and women sent into an unnecessary and illegal war in Iraq.

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After several years of approval, NARAL has refused this election year to endorse Olympia Snowe because of her votes for anti-choice federal judges in 2005, and of course, because of her vote last January to confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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...So I see the abortion debate not just in terms of Constitutional rights, or even fundamental human rights, but also in terms of religious freedom.

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With Judge Alito's confirmation, we are now facing the real possibility of Roe being dismantled. But we are also looking at a drastic shift in not only the balance on the Supreme Court, but in the balance of powers among the three branches of government.

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Held at the USM Lewiston campus
"A President already grasping at power unheard of in our nation's history, and a complicit Supreme Court stacked in the President's favor, does not bode well for the continuation of freedom and democracy in America."

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FARMINGTON (Maine) -- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright said Sunday that Olympia Snowe's indecision about her vote on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court has destroyed her long-standing reputation as a pro-choice politician.

"Look at the millions of dollars being spent on ads and organized persuasion, on both sides of the Judge Alito issue, to convince Olympia Snowe to vote one way or the other," Hay Bright, said in remarks to the Franklin County Democratic Committee on the University of Maine Farmington campus. "If Olympia Snowe were adamantly pro-choice, as her reputation claims, she would not be on the fence. Her vote would not be up for grabs, as it apparently is, over the confirmation of a judge who has a written and public record of opposition to Roe v. Wade."

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Candidate Forum - West Newfield
"If the Supreme Court rules that the President of the United States can issue orders that are automatically lawful by virtue of his position as President, no matter how much or badly they conflict with laws passed by Congress or even provisions in the U.S. Constitution, then how useful is it to know that Judge Alito thinks not even the President is above the law?"

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"The so-called 'Marriage Protection Amendment' to the U.S. Constitution is indefensible, and flies in the face of the religious and personal freedoms embodied in that great document," Jean Hay Bright, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said in a statement today.

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Jean supported Governor Baldacci and the Maine Legislature in its expansion of equal rights protections to include "sexual orientation" in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations.

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