"[Christ Would] Never Stop Throwing Up" Over
"The Bushes' willingness to stir up base instincts"

Bush is whipping up intolerance but calling it a sacred cause.

At first, the preacher-in-chief resisted conservative calls for a constitutional ban on gay marriage. He felt, as Jesus put it in the Gibson script (otherwise known as the Gospels), "If it is possible, let this chalice pass from me."

But under pressure from the Christian right, he grabbed the chalice with both hands and swigged Ñ seeking to set a precedent in codifying discrimination in the Constitution, a document that in the past has been amended to correct discrimination by giving fuller citizenship rights to blacks, women and young people.

If the president is truly concerned about preserving the sanctity of marriage, as one of my readers suggested, why not make divorce illegal and stone adulterers?

Our soldiers are being killed in Iraq; Osama's still on the loose; jobs are being exported all over the world; the deficit has reached biblical proportions.

And our president is worrying about Mars and marriage?

When reporters tried to pin down White House spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday on why gay marriage is threatening, he spouted a bunch of gobbledygook about "the fabric of society" and civilization.

The pols keep arguing that institutions can't be changed when, in fact, they change all the time. Haven't they ever heard of the institution of slavery?

The government should not be trying to legislate what's sacred.

When Bushes get in trouble, they look around for a politically advantageous bogeyman. Lee Atwater tried to make Americans shudder over the prospect of Willie Horton arriving on their doorstep; and now Karl Rove wants Americans to shudder at the prospect of a lesbian Ñ Dick Cheney's daughter Mary, say Ñ setting up housekeeping next door with her "wife."

When it comes to the Bushes' willingness to stir up base instincts of the base, it is as it was.

As the Max von Sydow character said in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters," while watching a TV evangelist appealing for money: "If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up. --Maureen Dowd, 02.26.04

Bush To Log Cabin Republicans: Screw You!

President Bush urged approval of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages on Tuesday, pushing a divisive social issue to the center of the election campaign and setting a clear policy contrast with Democratic challengers John Kerry and John Edwards. --AP, 02.24.04

Politex To Log Cabin Republicans: It's Time To Speak Out.

10,000 Republican Votes For The Dem Presidential Candidate?

"Log Cabin Republicans, which supported the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2000, has warned that it will break with the campaign if President Bush formally endorses the proposed amendment, as White House aides have said he intends to do. 'If the effort to write discrimination into the Constitution and use gay and lesbian Americans as a wedge issue becomes a centerpiece of the president's reelection campaign, then it's really the line in the sand for this organization,' [Patrick] Guerriero [, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, a national organization of more than 10,000 gay conservatives.] said. 'We've been extremely loyal to this president and party through thick and thin . . . but we are forced by this particular moment in history not to sit silent in what has emerged as the cultural war that far right groups have been wanting for years.'" --WP, 02.24.04

03.03.04

Got no jobs? Pick on the gays, brummett
Schwarzenegger Opposes Bush Gay Marriage Ban, Mathews, Nichols & Vogel
Marriage amendment threatens GOP unity, Canellos
Bush's Backfire Against Gays, Rosendall
The Question of Marriage, Davis
Cronkite On Gay Marriage, Cronkite
False Pretenses Of Bush's Gay Marriage Reversal, MoveOn
Gay marriage quagmire, dionne
I'd Leave The Country But My Wife Won't Let Me, Conaway
Gay Marriage: It Can Happen Here In NYC, Goldstein
State To Church: I Want A Divorce, Solomon
Constitutional Amendments: The Winners And Losers, Scot Powe, Jr.
The Descent of Marriage?, Kim
Bush's Support of Amendment Banning Gay Marriage Could Prove a Great Moment for Gay Rights. , Waldman
A Brief History of Marriage in America (toon), tomorrow

02.29.04

'Marriage, gay or straight, helps society achieve [its] goal.', frank
Like Past U.S. Civil Rights Movements, Gays Will Face A Conservative Backlash, rich
Conservative Argument Against Gay Marriage Would Force Us To Roll Back Civil Rights For Women, Blacks, ellis
Gay marriage: Another useless Bush battle, leupp
California's Supreme Court refuses request to halt gay weddings, BBC
Cal Supreme Ct Gives SF 7 Days to Make Case On Marriage, Dolan
S.F. weddings to continue, sfc
O'Donnell inspires other artists, sfc
Just Married, After 51 Years Together, wp
Gays Are Watching The Bush Bigotry Train Pull Up To Their Stop, alvear
Court: No quick halt of gay marriages, Kravets, AP
Mayor weds 21 gay couples in N.Y., Robertson
Marriage amendment must be defeated, rivers
Analysis: Bush's gay marraige gamble could turn ugly, Kevin Anderson