Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned medical school graduates Thursday that centuries of progress in scientific research are under attack by those who oppose stem cell research and dispute evolution and global warming.

The comments were Bloomberg's latest in a steady stream that aligns him more with the Democrats than his own party. In recent weeks he has railed against the National Rifle Association, championed abortion rights and parted with Republican leadership on immigration.

Bloomberg unleashed the newest barrage during a commencement speech at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied engineering. He said gains made in research are threatened by "people who simply disregard facts that don't happen to agree with their agenda."

[...]

In his speech, Bloomberg ticked off a list of scientific concerns, beginning with global warming.

The issue is attracting renewed attention from former President Clinton and is the subject of a new documentary by his vice president, Al Gore. Meanwhile, President Bush acknowledges that climate change is a real problem but questions the extent to which manmade pollutants are responsible.

Bloomberg said those on that side of the debate are "driven by ideology and short-term economics," according to a transcript of his speech given to reporters at New York City Hall.

He then ridiculed the campaign to teach schoolchildren about "intelligent design" alongside evolution. The belief proposes that living organisms are so complex that they must have been created by some type of higher force, and many conservatives, including Bush, say schools should present both concepts.

The mayor said children who learn it are receiving an inferior education that puts them at a disadvantage later.

He told the medical students that they share the same burden carried by the school's first graduates more than 100 years ago, when the field was "dominated by quacks and poorly trained physicians."

Their task, Bloomberg said, is to "defend the integrity and power of science." [AP/Newsday]

Bloomberg's really not much of a Republican in any case -- he was a registered Democrat, but changed party affiliation to run for Mayor when the Democratic field was very crowded with potential candidates.

[via Panda's Thumb]

Update: A Bloomberg run for President?

While it would certainly be a novelty to have someone competent in the office, I don't see Bloomberg as Presidential material, and I certainly don't think he's got the right combination of skills needed to extricate us from Bush's Iraq debacle. Of course, I don't see a lot of the putative Democratic candidates having those qualities either.

We certainly could do worse than Bloomberg, and he'd be a major improvement over Bush (which isn't saying much) but the state of things really requires that we do better.