NYT:Urged by Right,Bush Takes on Gay Marriage("to forefront of campaign")

[DeepModem Mom]

Urged by Right, Bush Takes On Gay Marriages
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: July 12, 2004


WASHINGTON, July 11 — Two weeks before the Democratic convention and under pressure from conservatives, President Bush is escalating his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, moving the issue to the forefront of the campaign and underscoring what his aides said was a critical difference between the president and Senator John Kerry.

Mr. Bush championed the amendment in his radio address this weekend as fellow Republicans in the Senate said they would seek to force a vote on it on Wednesday. Mr. Kerry and Senator John Edwards, the likely Democratic nominees for president and vice president, responded by saying they would come to Washington to vote against the amendment, even though it appears unlikely their votes will be needed to defeat it.

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards say that they oppose gay marriage but that the matter should be left to the states. In opposing the president, aides said, they will argue that Mr. Bush is trying to subvert the Constitution for political ends.

Mr. Bush's renewed advocacy of the amendment — also voiced in a campaign appearance on Friday — came as the White House appeared to be struggling to reconcile conflicting pressure from conservatives eager for Mr. Bush to champion the ban and some Republicans concerned that the issue could alienate undecided moderate voters....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/politics/campaign/12REPU.html?hp

[saracat]

1. Running back to his base,is he?

Must be scared that all those xtians don't find him so holy anymore and the south turning blue.Tee hee.

[The Zanti Regent]

2. Yet Andy Sullivan still supports Bush

Oh, Andy wrings his hands at his blog but no matter what abuse the GOP does, he still goes back to them and follows the Nazi Talking Points about what a dangerous man John Kerry is...

[Maddy McCall]

3. With his core supporters in the south...

...it's all about abortion, guns, and race.

Unless Bush is recorded escorting a daughter out of an abortion clinic, suggesting that all guns should be in the gubmint's hands, or cheating on Laura with a black woman, his core constituency in the South will continue to support him, damn those Democrats who would smear his good name.

:shrug:

[rooboy]

4. "Now that gays can't get married, do you feel safer??"

yeah, that campaign slogan will work REALLY well... :eyes:

[Robbien]

5. He is just heating up the cultural issues so that they won't notice

the economic issues are biting them in the butt.

[dumpster_baby]

8. Thomas Frank just wrote a great book about this

see some of his essays at http://www.tcfrank.com

[dumpster_baby]

10. Kerry needs to fight back metafictively

He needs to make commericicals showing how the right manipulates the voters on cultural issues in order to bamboozle them on economic issues.

[Robbien]

12. I just watched the PBS interview Moyers had with Frank

Had to tape it because it came on at 4am, but watched it as I was preparing for the day. It made me furious.

Basically he said the New Dems have dropped the fight and joined the GOP on populist issues so the only issues left are the cultural ones.
So the only reason we are voting are on the religious and moral issues while the elite takes over the economy.

[dbt]

6. Regardless of how you feel about gay marriage,

If you support bu$h's amendment banning it, you are supporting discrimination against a group of people based on something they cannot "help."

Your next step is an amendment banning certain skin colors. After that, anyone who does not hold to the "true faith" must be banned. Next, you must support an amendment banning "improper" broadcasts and printed articles.

There is so MUCH in the Constitution that will need banning that your great-grandchildren will be busy carrying on your work. Also, it takes 38 states to ratify any amendments. That will consume decades. Better get work, boys and girls!

:freak:
dbt

[DrBB]

7. Anti-gay-marriage referenda are part of a strategy

There's a strategy behind what they're doing. They're pushing to get anti-gay-marriage referenda on the ballot in crucial swing states. Point being to get hard right voters to turn out.

Glad to see Kerry attacking their "values" as "little hot button wedge issues."

[ozymandius]

9. Oh please! Oh please!

This will let America know that Bush has nothing left to fuel his campaign.

Are you safer? No.

Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Ha ha.

[saigon68]

11. HOMOPHOBIA = KARL ROVE'S WILLIE HORTON

Sick and disgusting to watch the local news interview the "Man & Woman" on the street, who then proceed to spew hatred for "THOSE PEOPLE"

ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DISGUSTING.

What a way to deflect the Micro Brains of the SHEEP.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. You're exactly right, saigon68 -- this is Bush II's Willie Horton --

[IndianaGreen]

13. What happened to the GOP's support for States' rights?

Until Clinton's misguided DOMA, the federal government had never intruded in the States role in issuing marriage licenses.

If you can deny a marriage license to someone because he/she is gay, you can also deny a teaching license on the same grounds. This is a point that is lost to Kerry.

[cap]

14. Kerry should point out that the whole thing was hatched

by the right wing. They started the ball rolling toward gay marriage. It was never a real campaign issue until they brought it up. Then the gays managed to find a loop hole in the law and ran right through it. If the right wing never wanted gay marriage, they wouldn't have started it.

This is this election's equivalent of Willie Horton. A big scary minority that frightens key voting blocs.