NYT: Bush Refines Position on Measure Banning Gay Marriage(damage control)

[DeepModem Mom]

NEWS ANALYSIS
Bush Refines His Position on a Measure Banning Gay Marriage
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

Published: July 15, 2004


WASHINGTON, July 14 - From the beginning, gay marriage has been an issue that President Bush has tried to finesse.

Under election-year pressure from his social conservative base, Mr. Bush endorsed the effort to adopt a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. In the last few days he has turned up the volume on the issue, talking about it in his weekly radio address on Saturday and calling wavering senators over the last day or two in an effort to shore up support for the measure as it headed toward a crucial procedural vote on Wednesday.

But after endorsing the measure in February, he would often go weeks without mentioning it in public, suggesting either a personal or political reluctance, or both, about pushing it too hard. And when he did raise the topic, he was careful to modulate his message to avoid alienating moderate voters, warning in particular against allowing the issue to become an excuse for gay bashing.

"What they do in the privacy of their house, consenting adults should be able to do," Mr. Bush said during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Friday, seeking to distinguish between private behavior and giving legal sanction to same-sex marriages. "This is America. It's a free society. But it doesn't mean we have to redefine traditional marriage."

By hedging his position, if only a bit, Mr. Bush may have insulated himself somewhat from the sting of the defeat the proposed amendment suffered in the Senate on Wednesday. But the way in which the proposal went down with a whimper - short of a simple majority, much less the two-thirds of the Senate needed for approval - raised questions about whether the White House had fundamentally misjudged the nation's attitude on the issue. And the vote left even some of Mr. Bush's own advisers wondering if his backing of the amendment did not hurt him politically more than it helped by further stoking opposition to him from the left....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/politics/campaign/15assess.html?hp

[radfringe]

1. damage control? sounds more like he's straddling the fence

just who is george bush*? and where does he stand? between the flip-flops and fence straddling it's being more and more unclear as to what he believes in, where he stands on issues and has his priorites screwed up

he changes his postiions more than someone adjusts their underwear to adjust a wedgie

[izzie]

2. I think his belief is getting a second term, only.

He seems to be right only on the day he states a point. Someone must be telling him what to say.. I will say he seems to be better at running for Pres. than when he is in the job. The WH seems like his Bed room between vacations and running for Pres. I guess his Vice is home minding the shop as Bush travels around the country saying anything and picking up money.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Bush: "Kerry's election will derail our agenda"

Let's derail this turkey!

[Hekate]

4. Did you catch Utah's Orrin Hatch blathering...

...on about "traditional marriage"?

These people must have zero sense of irony. I wonder how many wives the good Senator is planning to have when the country comes to its senses and returns to the completely-unchanged and unchanging, eternal Biblically-based values of "traditional marriage"? Hatch's own Mormon forefathers tried to bring that back, but they had to formally renounce the practice when they petitioned to have Utah become a state. Still goes on, though. Hallelujah.

Hekate

[IndianaGreen]

5. How about Santorum's "homeland security"

being threatened by gay marriage. What a homophobic asshole!

[nofurylike]

6. i'd almost laugh, but GRRRRRR... n/t

[dbt]

7. The amendment is EXACTLY an excuse for gay-bashing!

What the hell ELSE do you call it when you seek to deny one group the right that other groups have? If that ain't bashing, what DO you call it?

And exactly HOW does gays getting married "redefine traditional marriage?" What business is it of anyone to tell anyone ELSE how to be married? HELL, didn't a bunch of our ancestors leave Merrie England just to GET AWAY from people telling them how to run their lives?

Denying gay people the right to marry is discrimination, no different from denying rights to black people and women (just two examples; there are MANY more).

After you legislate discrimination toward people based on their sexual orientation, you ARE on Rush's much-ballyhooed "slippery slope." What's the NEXT thing you must "protect" against? Religion? Political affiliation? Blood type? IQ? Occupation? Union membership?

Notice how the "party of small government" ALWAYS wants to INCREASE the size of government?

:freak:
dbt

The only position bu$h has at any given moment is what comes through his earpiece!

[dusty64]

8. NO HE HAS NOT

insulated himself from the damage he has caused!