Ron Reagan To Take Dems' Podium

Democrats have snagged a high-profile speaker — and a measure of political one-upmanship — for this month's convention: Ron Reagan.

The younger son of the late President Ronald Reagan will address the Democratic National Convention in Boston about stem cell research.

David Wade, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, said Monday that Reagan will have a "prime time" speaking slot during the July 26-29 convention.

"Ron Reagan's courageous pleas for stem cell research add a powerful voice to the millions of Americans hoping for cures for their children, for their parents and for their grandparents," Wade said.

Reagan, 46, has been critical of President Bush's administration for its restriction of federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research and on the war in Iraq.

Ron Reagan's appearance at the convention could undercut any effort by Republicans to link Mr. Bush to the conservative icon Reagan.

After the 40th president's death last month, Mr. Bush's campaign Web site was fronted with a tribute to the late Reagan.

In his eulogy for Reagan, Mr. Bush praised parts of Reagan's presidency that could also describe Mr. Bush's own tenure: calling "evil" by its name, spurring private enterprise and being guided by religious devotion.

Ron Reagan he said his speech will only deal with the subject of stem cell research, something he and Nancy Reagan, the former first lady, have argued could lead to cures for a number of diseases like the Alzheimer's that afflicted the late president.

Because the extraction of stem cells destroys day-old embryos, the process is opposed by groups that link it to abortion.

"If they had asked me to say a few words about throwing George Bush out of office, I wouldn't do it," Reagan told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "This gives me a platform to educate people about stem cell research."

But Ron Reagan's critique of the Bush administration goes beyond stem cells. A vocal opponent of his father's conservative politics, Reagan said he would vote for anyone who could beat the current president.

Last month, Reagan blasted the administration's foreign policy, saying he believed the president misled Americans to gain support for the Iraq war.

"We lied our way into the war," he said on CNN, referring to allegations that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and direct connections to al Qaeda. "It's a terrible mistake, a terrible foreign policy error."

Saddam's alleged weapons stockpiles and ties to terrorism were the leading justifications for the March 2003 invasion. Aside from a handful of shells from the 1980s, no weapons have been found.

A Senate report last week faulted the CIA for producing estimates of Iraq's capabilities that were either unsupported by underlying intelligence, or based on bad intelligence.

The report did not address whether Bush administration officials were also culpable for overstating what the CIA told them. The Senate intelligence committee plans to address that question in a subsequent report. Some Democrats said they feel Mr. Bush shared blame.

Both the Senate panel and a preliminary report by the Sept. 11 commission have concluded that no operational relationship existed between Saddam and al Qaeda.

Mrs. Reagan made her views on stem cell research known more three years ago, becoming one of the first conservative-minded public figures to buck the Bush administration's restrictive funding policy.

Since then, prominent Republicans such as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter have also endorsed the research.

Mr. Bush has ordered the National Institutes of Health not to fund
any research on stem cells harvested from embryos after Aug. 9,
2001.