It’s nice to see the Democrats willing to call Bush on the carpet, for a change. (Again, I think we have Howard Dean to thank for surgically implanting a new backbone in the Democratic Party.) They are taking him on over the anti-gay marriage amendment. Perhaps they’re hoping the one million or so gays who voted for Bush last time around will have seen the error of their ways by now.
Top Democrats excoriated President Bush on Tuesday for announcing support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, accusing him of using the issue for political gain and trying to draw attention away from his record.
“Since he can’t run on his record of shipping jobs overseas, failing schools and rising health-care costs, he has to change the subject,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a written statement.
… McAuliffe said the Democratic Party would oppose the amendment.
“It is wrong to write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution, and it is shameful to use attacks against gay and lesbian families as an election strategy,” he said.
“It appears that the conservative compassion he [Bush] promised to deliver in 2000 has now officially run out.”
It’s not all sunshine, lollypops and rainbows with the Dems, though. The all-but-nominated Masschusetts Senator’s position on the issue is better than Bush’s but far from ideal.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Bush’s support for such an amendment makes it clear that his re-election strategy is to “use wedge issues and the politics of fear to divide the nation.”
The senator from Massachusetts has said he supports civil unions and equal protection for gays and lesbians but that he opposes marriage for them. He also said he believes it should be a state issue.
My opinion? The amendment will fail, but the Republicans will use the issue as often as they can to detract from the Bush administrations abysmal record in other areas. My hope is that enough Americans will see through the tactic, and that it will ultimately fail.