Ed Gillespie: Romney believes in constitutional marriage equality ban (ending states' rights)

[Bolo Boffin]

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/05/10/481772/romney-adviser-gillespie-constitutional-marriage-ba/

Ed Gillespie, senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, told Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown that the campaign would make President Obama’s support for marriage equality an issue this November and that Romney will actively push for a constitutional amendment to take away the right of states to voluntarily extend marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Ed is right: this is a bright line between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

[Dawson Leery]

1. Republicans do not truly belive in states rights.

Republicans believe in the rights belong to where ever they hold power.
Example: Republicans are the minority in the US Senate. Since they are the minority, they believe they have the right to abuse the rules and block any legislation which they disagree with.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. I really like how Gillespie has moved his opposition to the right.

While under George W. Bush, they were only about DOMA - keeping all the nasty marriage equality in some states out of the others. Now they're wanting to "drain the swamp" and end marriage equality everywhere.

Looks like President Obama moved the rock yesterday in more ways than one.

[kentuck]

3. If they get two-thirds of the states to approve their ban on marriage equality...?

Would they then be able to pass a Constitutional Amendment by a vote in the Senate? How would that work?

[Bolo Boffin]

4. Generally speaking, they would run the amendment through the Congress first

A super-majority (two-thirds) of both the House and Senate must pass it first, and then two-thirds of the states.

Two-thirds of the state legislatures could agree to call a constitutional convention and then propose as many amendments as they like. Those amendments would have to be approved by an "ultra" super-majority of three-fourths of the states. That, of course, has never been done in the history of the republic.