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Rove predicts Bush's 1st veto

Stem-cell bill to be rejected The presidential adviser also forecasts GOP success in November and progress on immigration reform.

By John Aloysius Farrell
Post Washington Bureau Chief


Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff for President Bush, fields questions during
a Denver Post editorial board meeting on July 9, 2006. (Post / John Prieto)

President Bush will likely cast the first veto of his presidency if the Senate, as expected, passes legislation to expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, White House aide Karl Rove said Monday in Denver.

"The president is emphatic about this," said Rove - Bush's top political adviser and architect of his 2000 and 2004 campaigns - in a meeting with The Denver Post editorial board.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 238-194 last year to pass the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. If the Senate approves the bill, it will go to the president's desk.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who backs the bill, has said he will try to bring it up for a Senate vote soon.

"It is something we would, frankly, like to avoid," Rove said when asked if the White House would welcome, or dread, vetoing legislation passed by a Republican Congress, especially on such an emotional issue as embryonic stem-cell research.

But Rove said he believes the legislation will pass the Senate with more than 60 votes this month, "and as a result the president would, as he has previously said emphatically, veto the Castle bill."

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