JUST ANOTHER SPECIAL INTEREST AT THE PUBLIC TEAT:

THE 'SCIENCE' DODGE (MEGHAN CLYNE, 3/11/09, NY Post)

Problem is, the administration's preening about its own scientific purity just isn't justified.

Consider, for instance, Eric Lander and Harold Varmus - the co-chairmen of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, which helps steer decisions on issues like the stem-cell matter.

Lander is a renowned stem-cell researcher at MIT, a world-class university that stands to get even more federal funding, thanks to Obama's stem-cell move. An MIT spokeswoman says the university takes conflict-of-interest precautions when its faculty serve in government positions - but added that it won't recuse itself from funding opportunities related to Obama's decision.

More of the public-relations legwork on the Obama stem-cell decision has been done by the advisory council's oth- er co-chairman, Harold Varmus.

What of Varmus? The president lauded him Monday as an example of the type of "outstanding scientists" who "will guide us in the years to come." He's a Nobel-prize winning scientist who now serves as president of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

And a spokeswoman says Sloane Kettering's Stem-Cell Research Facility didn't qualify for federal funds under the Bush policy, because it uses tissues that violate the Bush ethical guidelines. Now that Obama has reversed that policy, the federal funding floodgates are open.