Like you didn't KNOW this was coming?

"G.O.P. Moves Fast to Reignite Issue of Gay Marriage

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: October 27, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 — The divisive debate over gay marriage, which played a prominent role in 2004 campaigns but this year largely faded from view, erupted anew on Thursday as President Bush and Republicans across the country tried to use a court ruling in New Jersey to rally dispirited conservatives to the polls.

Wednesday’s ruling, in which the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual couples, had immediate ripple effects, especially in Senate races in some of the eight states where voters are considering constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage.

President Bush put a spotlight on the issue while campaigning in Iowa, which does not have a proposal on the ballot. With the Republican House candidate, Jeff Lamberti, by his side, Mr. Bush — who has not been talking about gay marriage in recent weeks — took pains to insert a reference into his stump speech warning that Democrats would raise taxes and make America less safe.

“Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage,” Mr. Bush said at a luncheon at the Iowa State Fairgrounds that raised $400,000 for Mr. Lamberti.

The president drew applause when he reiterated his long-held stance that marriage was “a union between a man and a woman,” adding, “I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended.”

The ruling in New Jersey left it to the Legislature to decide whether to legalize gay marriage. Even so, the threat that gay marriage could become legal energized conservatives at a time when Republican strategists say that turning out the base could make the difference between winning and losing on Nov. 7. With many independent analysts predicting Republicans will lose the House and possibly the Senate, President Bush’s political team is counting on the party’s sophisticated voter turnout machinery to hold Democratic advances enough that Republicans can at least maintain control.

“It’s a game of margins,” said Charles Black, a Republican strategist who consults frequently with Karl Rove, the chief White House political strategist. “You’ve got about 20 House races and probably half a dozen Senate races that are either dead even or very, very close. So if it motivates voters in one or two to go vote, it could make a difference.”

Democrats predicted Thursday that the debate would not dramatically alter the national conversation in an election that has been dominated by the war in Iraq and corruption and scandal in Washington. But across the country, Republicans quickly embraced the New Jersey ruling as a reason for voters to send them to Capitol Hill.

In Virginia, the court decision could not have come at a better time for Senator George Allen, a Republican whose campaign for re-election had been thrown off course by allegations that he had used racially insensitive remarks. The Virginia ballot includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Mr. Allen supports it; his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, argues that the ban is unnecessary.

On Thursday, Mr. Allen could be found in Roanoke at a rally held by backers of a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage. Victoria Cobb, an organizer of the events, said the New Jersey ruling was giving the cause “a new momentum.”

“It’s an issue that’s going to play a big role in the next 12 days,” Mr. Allen’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, said in an interview.

In Tennessee, another state with a proposal to ban gay marriage, Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., a Democrat running for the Senate, was sparring with Republicans over an advertisement in which the Republican National Committee asserts that Mr. Ford supports gay marriage — an assertion Mr. Ford says is wrong. On Thursday, he responded with his own advertisement, calling the Republican ad “despicable, rotten lies.”

Mr. Ford says he will vote for the Tennessee gay marriage ban. With early voting under way, the Republican candidate, Bob Corker, is telling voters that he has already cast his ballot in favor of the gay marriage ban.

And in Pennsylvania, where Senator Rick Santorum, the Senate’s leading Republican backer of a gay marriage ban, is fighting for his political survival, conservative advocacy groups were working furiously to revive the gay marriage debate. Pennsylvania does not have a ballot initiative.

“It’s an important wedge issue to talk about between candidates where there are two distinct viewpoints on the issue,” said Joseph Cella, president of Fidelis, a national Catholic advocacy group that has embraced Mr. Santorum for his views on abortion and gay marriage. Mr. Cella said his organization, which was also working to pass a gay marriage ban in Colorado, was contemplating an advertising campaign...." (con't)


The power of devisive politics and making people afraid. Apparently that is all a morally bankrupt Republican party has left.

That is apparently what passes for leadership today in Washington.

And people wonder why I consider core values of HONESTY, HONOR, INTEGRITY, and PROBITY so important.


Rob

Of course we new it was coming. Brought to you by the party of "family values". The party is bankrupt as far as any values, as far as I am concerned. They are so desparate. In yesterdays comments I posted a thread about how one Repug. in Indiana said a vote for the Democrats is a vote for the homsexual agenda. This is why we need everybody and anybody who is a Democrat to VOTE!!!!!

I try to avoid making generalizations and I try not to hate people. I am human, however, and occasionally fail in my goals. This is one time, however, when I am unapologetically ripping off the veil of civility.

I absolutely cannot express the level of disgust I have for Republicans right now -- by that I do not just mean the leadership, but the everyday man-on-the-street voter who does not stand up to this kind of bigotry. They are, without question, the most loathsome individuals in American society.

Memo to you Log Cabinettes: when will you learn? Your continued apologies for the party that HATES you and that wants to see you pushed back into the closet makes you no better than the silent moderate Muslims who allow the worst elements of that faith bring down an entire society. You are apologists to our own homegrown Taliban. If anything, you are worse than moderate Muslims -- they are at least mostly driven to silence by fear of retribution. You should know better, you DO know better, but you continue to give money and votes and comfort and cover to a political party that is mechanically orchestrating your own marginalization. And mine. You and your party are dirt and you (all) will be judged by history with the harsh light normally reserved for slave owners, Nazi appeasers and segregationists. This is your choice. You can stand up now -- and I mean STAND THE F^CK UP, not wimpily "work from within", and do the right thing for ALL Americans -- or you can continue to sit on your cushy, tax-padded butts and allow YOUR political bedfellows to prop up YOU as the enemy of the state. You can allow yourself to be again set up as the witch who, every two years, needs to be reburned at the stake over and over again till there's nothing left but the charred remains of your self esteem. Your choice will be your legacy.

Well said Aquaman. I applaud you.

Don't forget the gay papists.

As always, this Thanksgiving the Log Cabin Republicans and Log Cabin papists will be giving thanks for the gift of self-loathing.

I think the real question is, how often can they go to this well? Particularly with the Foley scandal demonstrating the hypocrisy of the GOP on gay issues. I also find it interesting that the anti-gay hate movement has really grabbed the NJ ruling as a way to motivate voters, almost in desperation. I think (or maybe I just hope) that they are frightened of losing their political power and need those "values voters" at the polls, but are concerned enough of them won't show up.

Gay marriage was a huge issue out here in Colorado even before the NJ court decision. We have a ballot initiative to amend our constitution to define marriage as between one man and one women (which actually doesn't have a lot of traction), another ballot initiative to recongnize domestic partnerships (which looks like it will pass with about 56% of the vote). And best of all, Representative Musgrave (who sponsored the federal Constitutional Amendment against gay marriage) is in a tough re-election battle with a largely unknown candidate. The best thing about that race, Musgrave's stance has actually hurt her...there are attack ads quoting Musgrave as having said that "gay marriage" is the most important issue today. More important than terrorism, Iraq, the economy, etc. The ads have been vary effective (at least judging by the fact the Republican party has pledge to dump an additional 1.3 millioin into the campaign to retain a seat they thought was safe).