Steele Apologizes for Holocaust,
Stem Cell Comparison
By George Altman
Capital News Service
Friday, Feb. 10, 2006
ANNAPOLIS - Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele apologized Friday for
comments he made to the Baltimore Jewish Council comparing
embryonic stem cell research to Nazi medical experiments.
"Some folks drew an inference to the Holocaust and the
research and all of that, and that was not what I was intending
to say," Steele said. "That's not where my heart or my head is."
Speaking on WBAL radio, Steele went on to explain that the
comments resulted from his discussion earlier in the night about
the impact his trip to the Holocaust Museum in Israel had on
him, and that he did not intend to link stem cell research to
medical experiments performed by the Nazis during World War II.
Steele made the controversial comments comparing the two
Thursday night, speaking to a meeting of the Baltimore Jewish
Council.
When asked about his position on stem cell research, Steele
said, according to a Baltimore Sun report, "You of all folks
know what happens when people decide they want to experiment on
human beings, when they want to take your life and use it as a
tool."
Art Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish
Council, said Steele apologized to him Friday morning and said
he would send a formal letter of apology to the council.
"His apology was very humble. It was sincere and I completely
accept it," Abramson said.
Steele's remarks quickly became political fodder in the
campaign to fill the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Paul S.
Sarbanes, D-Md., which Steele is seeking.
One of the declared candidates for the Democratic nomination,
Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-3rd, called a press conference in
Annapolis Friday morning to denounce Steele's remarks. With him
was his wife, Myrna E. Cardin, a former president of the
Baltimore Jewish Council, who had attended the meeting where
Steele spoke.
"It was really quite horrifying," she said. "I don't know
that I could say there was a collective (gasp), but you sure
felt that in the room, that these were just not the words that
any of us ever wanted to hear."
A second Democratic candidate for the Sarbanes sear, former
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, weighed in later with a written
statement saying that he thought Steele's remarks were
"inappropriate and insensitive."
"There can be no comparison to lifesaving stem cell medical
research and the reprehensible horrors committed by the Nazis
against innocent men, women and children," Mfume said.
Benjamin Cardin said that stem cell research is "an
appropriate issue for us to debate . . . but he (Steele) doesn't
have the right to compare those dedicated individuals who are
involved in stem cell research to the atrocities that took place
during World War II with the physicians of Nazi Germany."
A spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. declined to
comment, saying Ehrlich had no statements beyond those released
by Steele.
Senate Minority Whip Andrew P. Harris, R-Baltimore and
Harford counties, defended Steele, saying, like Steele, he
believed embryonic stem cells constitute human life and Steele's
comments were based on this belief.
Harris said the problem wasn't that Steele's comments had
gone too far. "I think the interpretation of the comments went
too far," Harris said. "Now, it's politics being played with the
issue."
Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, D-Baltimore County, who is
sponsoring a Senate bill that would allocate funding for
embryonic stem cell research, was at Cardin's press conference
and called on Ehrlich to stop a threatened filibuster of the
bill by Senate Republicans.
"I think the governor has the
ability to call off a filibuster and to let the right thing
happen," Hollinger said, adding, Ehrlich should "disavow the
language that's been used around the embryonic stem cell
research bill."
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