McCain Repeats Palin's Attack On Fruit Fly Research

John McCain reached back into the presidential campaign on Wednesday to pull out a scientific critique that had first been made by his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, when she ridiculed funding for fruit fly research. In a late-October speech, Palin noted that the research was going on in "Paris, France" and added "I kid you not."

On Wednesday, McCain himself grabbed for the fruit-fly swatter at a press conference to unveil his new anti-earmark legislation.

After a long takedown of research into lobsters by the University of Maine that involves a "Lobster Cam," McCain, a Senator from Arizona, turned on the fruit flies, saying, "also, there's one in Paris that -- yes -- $212,000 for Olive Fruit Fly research in Paris, France."

During the campaign, Palin's criticism of fruit-fly research was heavily attacked by the scientific community, which argued that fruit flies, because of their brief life-spans, make up a cornerstone of scientific and medical research. In 1933, Thomas Hunt Morgan won a Nobel Prize for his work with fruit flies, which showed how genes are passed on through chromosomes.

Palin was considered at the time to have been scientifically freelancing, but McCain's comments today indicate that the objection to fruit-fly research came from the top.

The specific earmark in question was requested by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.). The money was for a lab set up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Europe to study emerging threats from insects. "The Olive Fruit Fly has infested thousands of California olive groves and is the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries," said Thompson. "The research facility is located in France because Mediterranean countries like France have dealt with the Olive Fruit Fly for decades, while California has only been exposed since the 1990s."

Comments

[indy girl]

11:39 AM on 01/16/2009

Way to go, Senator McCain....you have just verified that you are just as clueless as Sarah Palin on scientific issues.

And that takes some doin'!

[Litterbox]

10:28 AM on 01/12/2009

This morning's Inside Higher Education reports that the lobstah cam is not federally funded.

Here is the blurb:

"During the presidential campaign, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska infuriated scientists by mocking federal support for research on fruit flies — apparently unaware of how many significant scientific advances (many of them helping humans) started with research on fruit flies. Sen. John McCain, her former running mate, returned to the fruit fly last week in his war against earmarks. This time he attacked the same fruit fly research, but also focused on an earmark for the University of Maine so that researchers at the Orono campus could conduct studies and fund a “lobster-cam” so people can watch lobsters. But it’s unclear whether McCain’s anti-earmark campaign is always based on knowledge of the earmarks. Maine officials say that the lobster-cam was a small student project that never received federal support, and that the funds that have gone to the Lobster Institute at Maine have supported research on mysterious diseases that have been depleting lobster stocks and endangering the lobster industry. “McCain and his buddies should check the facts,” said Bob Bayer, a professor of animal and veterinary sciences and director of the institute."

If ignorance is bliss, then John McCain must be a very happy man.

[Peachstealth]

11:49 PM on 01/12/2009

When I took genetics in college we used Drosophila ( Fruit Flies) to experiment with because they have a very short life cycle.
This particular experiment wasn't a genetic research that could be applied to other organisms. It was research on how to control fruit flies in olive orchards.
To owners on olive orchards this is important research, to any one else it's pure pork.

[kc7999]

03:56 PM on 01/13/2009

Yes, that's right. To anyone who owns an olive orchard, anyone who works on those orchards, anyone who sells foods or oils made from olives retail, it's important. People are losing their jobs because of a fruit fly infestation. If 700$billion+ goes to Wall Street, 150$billion+ goes to the auto manufacturers, why exactly shouldn't a mere 300K go to scientists trying to help the economy so directly? SO WHAT if we're working with French scientists...they've been researching these flies for decades, so we're that much closer to helping the California farmers by teaming up with France. I'm just sick+tired of science being held in such a suspect way. Like America's mad scientists are running around in lab coats spending all our money foolishly.

[Katlen]

03:21 PM on 01/11/2009

Stupid man.

We are at war against the return of the Dark Ages.

[elsa12]

02:43 PM on 01/10/2009

I am a conservative. however, I strongly disgree with anyone who denigrates scientific research be it because it involves a fruit fly or because it takes place in Paris, France. God forbid!!


On this issue, I am all with Christopher Hitchens1!

[claylandg]

04:27 PM on 01/09/2009

Well let france pay for it.

[11907281]

06:38 PM on 01/09/2009

simple minds

[Riani]

12:57 AM on 01/10/2009

Assuming there is a mind out there

[slemay]

04:14 PM on 01/09/2009

Aw, come on, guys. You know that Sen. McCain could have been at least as good a scientist as he was a pilot. Wait, as I recall he lost five planes. So, yeah, that's about right

He's still trying to call out to the social conservative base, though why is hard to decipher. His objection to this research is nonsensical, but then so was his selection of Sarah Palin.

[elsa12]

02:45 PM on 01/10/2009

You know, call McCain on the resarch question. Totally valid!

But do not denigrate his service to America. Bad form.

[professoramy]

04:33 PM on 01/13/2009

Nonsense. No one today - even if he were the son and grandson of admirals as McCain is - would be allowed to crash planes multiple times, as McCain did. Too bad he wasn't pulled from that duty. He himself would have been safe if only the higher-ups had stopped him from flying so dangerously.

[takeusaback]

04:09 PM on 01/09/2009

Re: what's next for Palin:

How about a Observation post in the middle of the Siberian Sea? That way she could REALLY keep an eye on those pesky Russians for us.

As for research using Fruit Flies? Well, They are extremely useful and economical for Scientific and medical research. That seems a good thing to me. Regarding the site in France: Would you prefer to have the US Olive industry destroyed by an insect when a little research will ultimately develop the solution the problem? Or perhaps their objection is spending tax dollars overseas?
If the latter, I can suggest a few other over seas spending that could be better spent here at home!!

[prog]

03:46 PM on 01/09/2009

More blather from the simple minded.

I doubt he'd have made a nobel prize winner part of his cabinet. More likely a creation "scientist".

(shudder).

[1murillo]

03:16 PM on 01/09/2009

Anti-earmarks is a straw man. It's simple to beat up on the earmark of your choice - especially if you refuse to learn its reasoning - but communities and Congress depend on earmarks.

Campaigning against earmarks is one thing, getting such legislation passed is close to impossible.

[Riani]

02:32 PM on 01/09/2009

It's de ja vu! When I wrote about this in my blog, (when was that, a thousand light-years ago?) as now, what astounded me most is how people can be so impressed by their own cluelessness. http://musehunt.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/dinosaurs-fruit-flies-sarah-palin-special-needs/
I am less and less surprised by McCain's choice, as he and Palin seem to share a common disregard for the virtues of applying you mind to anything.

[MikeDu]

02:18 PM on 01/09/2009

Someone should tell McCain that those fancy mineproof trucks currently protecting soldiers in Iraq were earmarks. Why does McCain hate our troops?
Here is a concise description of the Repub's newfound objection to earmarks: The money ain't going into OUR pockets anymore. Period.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

01:51 PM on 01/09/2009

She just hates fruit flies because they're smarter than she is.

[inorbit]

01:35 PM on 01/09/2009

Yeah, and we shouldn't do anything to protect the olive industry in California from fruit fly infestations??????

Palin and McCain are both such morons. Thank God they weren't elected.

[cosmic]

12:46 PM on 01/09/2009

ah McCain, all your political tricks is from the stone age.

[indy girl]

11:40 AM on 01/16/2009

Imagine him in a Fred Flintstone tiger fur driving a stone age car. Now THAT'S funny.

[zkazan]

12:31 PM on 01/09/2009

Not much worse than Dirty Harry Reid's earmark for $55 million dollars for a museum of gangsters or mobsters or something in Las Vegas. I imagine he'll be selling the notion even more now as we would all need to consider the jobs to be created for the project. What do you want to bet he gets it?

Another premonition has that 'bridge to nowhere' being built sometime in the next two years.

I LOVE Barack but I think he's going try to make too many people happy.