Clift: "Opportunistic politicians (Romney) messing in state laws to further presidential ambitions"

[Human Torch]

Yesterday's Issue
Mitt Romney is wooing conservatives by opposing gay marriage. It's a strategy that won't get him very far.

ELEANOR CLIFT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15880408/site/newsweek/

Nov. 24, 2006 - There ought to be a prohibition against opportunistic politicians messing around in state laws to further their presidential ambitions. With his days as governor of Massachusetts nearing an end, Mitt Romney is trying to reopen the issue of same-sex marriage in the only state where it is legal.

Romney opposes gay marriage, and he hopes to ride the issue to the White House. Talk about retro. Rallying the right around fear of the so-called homosexual agenda worked in 2004, but it failed to rouse the same degree of passion in ’06. Voters are wising up to the games politicians play.

A relative unknown, Romney is fashioning himself as the conservative alternative to John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination. The right doesn’t trust McCain, and Romney thinks he can prove his bona fides with social conservatives by forcing a measure onto the Massachusetts ballot in '08 to amend the state constitution and ban gay marriage. The state legislature adjourned without doing his bidding, so Romney has appealed to the state Supreme Court, asking it to order a ballot initiative because 170,000 citizens have signed a petition asking for it. This is the same court that in 2003 ruled same-sex marriage legal; since then, 8,000 gay and lesbian couples have been joined in matrimony in Massachusetts.

The issue would be settled in Massachusetts if not for Romney’s meddling. A survey done by the progressive Campaign for America’s Future found that the more gay marriage is debated, the more tolerant the country grows, with a majority (51 percent) now saying “homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society” rather than something that should be “discouraged by society” (42 percent). Romney is going to battle stations over yesterday’s issue. He says McCain is “disingenuous” because he opposes same-sex marriage but believes it should be left up to the states. Romney wants to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Yet he was elected governor as a social moderate and once ran against Ted Kennedy for the Senate as a liberal Republican. Where does he get off accusing McCain of trying to have it both ways when it comes to gay marriage?

[pissedoffprogressive]

1. Thanks for posting. Romney is a snake and needs to get his ass out of Mass!

He needs to go back to Utah and marry more women.:mad:

[DURHAM D]

2. Shouldn't he be in Vancouver already -

teaching the Canadians how to set up the bribe factory for the 2010 Olympics? It is what he does best.

He is just another empty suit, not unlike the current President. Loves sports but doesn't play well with others. A child of privilege who found himself standing on third base and thought he had hit a triple.

[Demeter]

3. It's the Republican Way

All the lousy GOP Presidents fucked over their home states as governor, first: Reagan, Bush, and probably all those 19th century ones, too.