Asked about it during today’s press briefing, Dana Perino defended Bush’s stem cell policy and insisted that Bush had never, in fact, banned stem cell research:

Unfortunately, the president’s position on stem cells has been misconstrued over the years, with the suggestion that President Bush put a ban on research for embryonic stem cell research. That is not true. … The President made a very important choice after a lot of careful deliberation.

Watch it:

It’s technically true that Bush did not ban stem cell research — he just strictly limited funding of it. Vetoing bipartisan legislation that even ardent pro-life conservative Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) supported, Bush arbitrarily limited funding to research of just 60 stem cell lines cultivated before Aug. 9, 2001. The number eventually shrank to a dismal 21 after some lines were found to have been contaminated or retrieved unethically. The limits make scientists’ work more difficult and less effective, and — since the thousands of embryos not implanted in women are eventually destroyed — don’t even save the embryos Bush considers to be “human life.”

Despite Perino’s attempt to blame the media for “misconstruing” Bush’s policy, even his own scientists agree that his research limits are profoundly harmful:

– Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Bush’s former Director of the National Institute of Health: “American science will be better served — and the nation will be better served — if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines that they can study with the different methods that have emerged since 2001.”

– Story Landis, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: “We are missing out on possible breakthroughs,” she told Congress, adding that the ability to work on newly derived stem cell colonies — currently precluded from federal funding — “would be incredibly important.”

Perhaps if Bush got his ideas from scientists rather than science-fiction novels, American stem cell research would be on the path to curing diseases.

The Congressional Budget Office director yesterday told Congress that the proposed bailout may worsen the current financial crisis. “Ironically, the intervention could even trigger additional failures of large institutions, because some institutions may be carrying troubled assets on their books at inflated values,” Peter Orszag said. “Establishing clearer prices might reveal those institutions to be insolvent.”

Lobbyists for the financial industry are engaged in a “feeding frenzy.” Wall Street firms, commercial banks, and insurers are lobbying on an array of issues — “from beating back proposals to make it easier to reduce mortgage debts in bankruptcy courts to fighting, unsuccessfully so far, to retain control over executive pay.”

In a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Condoleezza Rice admitted to discussing torture techniques in the White House in the spring of 2002. In meetings led by Rice and attended by Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, and other administration officials, officials authorized waterboarding and other coercive methods to interrogate al Qaeda detainee Abu Zubaydah. ABC News first reported the meetings in April.

“Sarah Palin schmoozed with controversial media tycoon Rupert Murdoch at a swanky charity gala” in New York Wednesday night. “He gave her a pat on the back … and said to her, ‘Thank you very much’” as she slid into the back of a waiting SUV wearing “a radiant smile,” Politico reports.

On the trail today: John McCain and Barack Obama will meet with President Bush at 4 pm to discuss the bailout package for the financial industry. Sarah Palin will attend McCain’s speech at the Clinton Global Initiative and then head to Philadelphia. Joe Biden will speak about the economy in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust study has found that “[w]orkers are shouldering higher health care costs as more employers demand bigger out-of-pocket payments from employees before their insurance kicks in.” Annual deductibles “jumped an average of 29%, to $1,344, for those with family coverage.”

A prosecutor for the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, resigned this week, alleging that the government had denied a defendant access to “potentially exculpatory evidence.” Army Col. Lawrence J. Morris, lead prosecutor for the tribunals, denied the reports and said that Vandeveld resigned for “personal reasons.”

“Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, who shook up the agency when he barred scientists from consulting for drugmakers, announced that he would leave at the end of October “so there is a clear sense that whoever wins the election, N.I.H. has to be a clear priority in their mind.”

Connecticut Democrats, angry that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is campaigning for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and criticizing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), “agreed Wednesday to circulate a resolution to censure the veteran politician.” The resolution “condemns Lieberman for speaking at the Republicans’ convention and backing McCain.”

And finally: Yesterday, actor Michael Douglas held a news conference “urging the United States and eight other holdout nations to ratify a nuclear test ban treaty.” However, reporters began asking him questions about the current financial crisis, because of his role as fictional banker Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film “Wall Street.” One reporter asked Douglas, “Are you saying Gordon that greed is not good?” “I’m not saying that,” Douglas replied. “And my name is not Gordon. He’s a character I played 20 years ago.”

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Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he was not prepared to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies for their participation in the warrantless wiretapping program. “I certainly would not give them immunity retroactively on programs that we don’t know what they are,” he said.

The White House agreed yesterday to give Senate intelligence committee members and staff access to internal documents related to its domestic surveillance program. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said that when one of her staff members reviewed the documents, “he wasn’t impressed.”

In another rebuke of the Bush administration’s stem cell policy, National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni said, “All avenues of research need to be pursued.” White House spokesman Tony Fratto responded that President Bush has a “broader view” than scientists, which takes into account “moral and religious views.”

Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon commended Democratic presidential candidates for refusing to commit to withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq by 2013. “The only thing that would have concerned me would have been a repeat of 2003, where the populist’s message of ‘get out now’ would overtake the Democratic Party,” he said.

24 percent: President Bush’s approval rating in a new Reuters/Zogby poll, which sets yet another record low for the President.

Prior to his confirmation hearing today, Attorney General nominee Mike Mukasey will be introduced “before the cameras” by a “tripartisan” group of senators: Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

In a special election yesterday, Niki Tsongas (D), the wife of the late Sen. Paul Tsongas (D), beat out Republican Jim Ogonowski to fill former Rep. Martin Meehan’s (D-MA) vacant 5th district House seat, “becoming the first woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress in nearly 25 years.”

And finally: Colbert throws his hat in the ring. On the Daily Show last night, comedian Stephen Colbert “made a surprise appearance” to officially announce he was considering a run for president. About 20 minutes later on his own show, Colbert announced “Yes, I’m doing it!” He then welcomed CBS political analyst Jeff Greenfield to analyze his impact on the race “in the past three minutes.”

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.

Under Schwartz, the agency is now requiring all of its employees to fill out a form to document all their contacts with Congress. The form, obtained by ThinkProgress, appears to be an attempt to discourage employees from cooperating with congressional investigators.

Yesterday, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) wrote to NIH head Dr. Elias Zerhouni and asked him to explain who approved the form’s distribution, which employees received it, and the rationale behind “having this type of form at all.” He also expressed concern at the chilling effect the interference may have on whistleblowers:

[T]his form looks more like something people in NIH congressional affairs would use to log requests for information from Congress. It doesn’t appear to be something that would be handed out to regular NIEHS employees or employees at any of the other NIH institutes. In fact, handing this form out to rank and file NIEHS employees during the course of a congressional investigation could cause these employees to feel that management is attempting to flush out whistleblowers or any other individual assisting me with my inquiry.

On July 11, Grassley also wrote a letter to Zerhouni stating that NIEHS employees had “discussions with management that left them with the impression that there would be retaliation if it was discovered that they had provided information to…congressional investigators.”

Such interference with congressional investigations is illegal, as is denying or interfering with “employees’ rights to furnish information to Congress.” Yet it is not the first example of whistleblower suppression by the Bush administration. President Bush’s former surgeon general Richard Carmona recently told Congress that during his term, political appointees were assigned to “vet his speeches.” He was also barred from speaking freely to reporters, as was James Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientist.

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Even Bush’s own scientists disagree with his position on stem cell research. Last month, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Bush’s appointee as director of the National Institutes of Health, said that “American science will be better served — and the nation will be better served — if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines that they can study with the different methods that have emerged since 2001.”

Furthermore, polling done this year shows that the Bush is at odds with the public, as “now a solid and consistent majority says that it wants to move forward with research”:

“It’s interesting to note that even Republicans in the CBS News poll said they approve of embryonic stem cell research by 54-36. On the stem cell research issue, Bush isn’t even representing his own partisans, much less the rest of the public,” states American Progress fellow Ruy Teixeira.

Dr. Zerhouni shares my view that human life is precious, and should not be exploited or destroyed for the benefits of others. And he shares my view that the promise of ethically conducted medical research is limitless.

Zerhouni also reportedly “endorsed…in writing” a 2002 bill by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would impose criminal penalties on all attempts to “derive embryonic stem cells for disease research.” Bush currently has threatened to veto legislation to increase funding for embryonic stem cell research.

But yesterday, in “a high-profile dissent from Bush administration policy,” Zerhouni reversed course and criticized the Bush administration’s restrictions. He stated that “American science will be better served — and the nation will be better served — if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines that they can study with the different methods that have emerged since 2001.” Watch it:

As AP notes, “Zerhouni’s comments appear to be his strongest yet in support of lifting President Bush’s 2001 ban that restricted government funding to research using only embryonic stem cell lines then in existence. There are just 21 such lines now in use.” Story Landis, the NIH official overseeing Bush’s restrictive embryonic stem cell policy, also recently suggested that the President’s approach is delaying life-saving cures. (More on recent medical breakthroughs involving embryonic stem cells HERE.)

Transcript:

HARKIN: Would scientists have a better chance of finding these new cures, new interventions for diseases if the current restrictions on embryonic stem cell research were lifted?

ZERHOUNI: I think the answer is yes. My experience has been this. In 2001, I think the policy that was put in place was the first one to fund embryonic stem cell research. I think NIH has done a great job in the first three years of that, in establishing infrastructure, funding new scientists which weren’t fundable before. Since 2004, I think it’s very clear, from the point of view of science, and what I have overseen, that these cell lines won’t be sufficient to do all the research we need to do. For the reasons that you mentioned, but the most important one is that these cell lines have exhibited instability from the genetic standpoint, and it’s not possible for me to see how we can continue the momentum of science in stem cell research with the cell lines that we have currently at NIH that can be funded.

So from my standpoint, it is clear today, that American science will be better served — and the nation will be better served — if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines that they can study with the different methods that have emerged since 2001, the different strategies that we now understand, which underlie the fundamental issue, which is nuclear programming, or DNA programming, or reprogramming. So the answer is yes.

The center of the storm still appears to be Karl Rove and his failure to tell Fitzgerald about his conversations with TIME reporter Matt Cooper during his initial testimony. But these two graphs, buried at the end of today’s Washington Post, seem to be a plausible explanation of what’s going on:

Randall Eliason, the former chief of public integrity prosecution at the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, and another former prosecutor, David Schertler, speculated that Fitzgerald would not have considered charging Rove unless he had significant evidence from other witnesses that Rove mentioned the Cooper conversation to them. Now the prosecutor must check out the Novak conversation and weigh it against his other evidence.

“If you’re going to bring charges against the White House deputy chief of staff, you want to be absolutely convinced it was an intentional lie,” Schertler said. “I think Fitzgerald is looking at this so at the end of the day he can say, ‘I explored everything.’”

More analysis on recent developments from Firedoglake here and here.

Also, a video refresher on why all of this is so important here.

August 8, 2001: President Bush, bowing to pressure from the right-wing, announces no federal money will be allowed for the development of new stem cell lines. He promises, however, that “more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines already exist…Leading scientists tell me research on these 60 lines has great promise that could lead to breakthrough therapies and cures.”

May 9. 2003: National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni reports the president was too optimistic and, in fact, only 11 of the cell lines created by August 2001 are available for research.

November 11, 2003: A medical ethics panel formed by Johns Hopkins University finds “treating patients with the embryonic stem cells approved by President Bush for federally funded research would be unethical and risky” because the approved cell lines, “were initially grown on mouse cells. That could expose humans to an animal virus their immune systems couldn’t fight.”

September 20, 2004: President Bush fudges the numbers and ignores recent scientific findings, claiming: “I agreed to allow federal funding to go forward on existing stem cell lines … Out of those 70 lines, some 22 are functional now. And out of that 22 lines, there’s over 300 different projects that are going forward.”

January 24, 2005: A new scientific study finds the existing stem cell lines should be destroyed. “All human embryonic stem cell lines approved for use in federally funded research are contaminated with a foreign molecule from mice that may make them risky for use in medical therapies, according to a study released Sunday.”