Religious Right Pander Watch

Posted by jrosenhouse on May 18, 2006
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With the Bush administration, and Repbulicans generally, tanking in the polls, the time has come to do some serious pandering to the right-wing base. Expect to see a lot more articles like this one, from The Washington Post:

A U.S. Senate panel advanced a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on Thursday as the committee chairman shouted “good riddance” to a Democrat who walked out of the tense session.

“If you want to leave, good riddance,” The Senate Judiciary Chairman, Republican Arlen Specter, told Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold, who refused to participate because, he said, the meeting was not sufficiently open to the public.

“I’ve enjoyed your lecture too. See you later, Mr. Chairman,” Feingold told the Pennsylvania senator before storming out of the private room where the meeting took place.

The testy exchange highlighted tensions over the proposal, which seeks to amend the U.S. Constitution to prevent states from recognizing same-sex marriages.

The measure passed 10-8 on a party-line vote. Specter said he voted for the amendment because he thought it should be taken up by the full Senate, even though he does not back it.

Party-line vote. So much for there being no difference between the parties.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential hopefuls are trying desperately to shore up their theocratic credentials. To John McCain’s recent graduation address at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, you can now add the spectacle of the pro-choice, pro-civil-union Rudy Giuliani stumping for former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed in Georgia:

Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani glided over his support for gay civil unions and declared heterosexual marriage to be “inviolate” today as he helped raise money for a former leader of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed, who is in a tough fight to become lieutenant governor of Georgia.

For Mr. Giuliani, who is considering a run for the presidency in 2008, the trip to Georgia allowed him to pick up a political chit from Mr. Reed that could be useful if and when Mr. Giuliani builds a national coalition that includes evangelical Republicans, who are a core part of Mr. Reed’s political base.

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Comments

  1. #1 BigDumbChimp
    May 18, 2006

    “I’ve enjoyed your lecture too. See you later, Mr. Chairman,”

    loved that

    Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani glided over his support for gay civil unions and declared heterosexual marriage to be “inviolate” today as he helped raise money for a former leader of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed, who is in a tough fight to become lieutenant governor of Georgia.

    Anyone who sides with that litty goblin Reed looses immediate respect in my book. Hypocrite to the gills.

  2. #2 DFX
    May 18, 2006

    How many years do you think it will take for us to look back at this time in history and question how we could be so blind to the obvious prejudice of our country?

  3. #3 Dan R.
    May 18, 2006

    As sad as it is — its only been in the last decade or so that we universally look upon segregation as a stain on our history.

    I still remember the outrage that my mother (a physician) faced in the 80′s in a relatively cosmopolitan area of the deep south. Everything from requiring her husband to be the primary guarantor of a loan for purchasing medical equipment in 1980 (he was in no way connected to the practice), to the outrage when she suggested in 1984 that the local medical association admit black physicians.

    Our history is much more recent than we would like to think.

  4. #4 darthWilliam
    May 19, 2006

    Isn’t this kind of like fiddling while Rome burns? Lets see, we have terrorism, the war in Iraq & Afganistan, the ever growing deficit, oil shortages & energy alternatives, global warming and our Senate is busy with this crap?

    Will someone please explain how allowing gay people to get married impacts at all on non-gay people’s marriages? Oh thats right, it doesn’t.

    Sheesh.

    …darth

  5. #5 Anonymous
    May 19, 2006

    Giuliani must be seriously desperate. He can’t expect many Christian rightists to overlook the whole pro-choice, gay rights thing just because he cosies up to Reed. Yet he’s risking far more lost votes by association with sleaze when Reed goes down with Abramoff and DeLay and Ney and the rest of them.

  6. #6 Mark Paris
    May 19, 2006

    Helping the slimy Reed, who is tainted by the Indian casino-lobbyist scandal, immediately disqualifies anyone from being president in my book.

  7. #7 Adam Ierymenko
    May 19, 2006

    Do politicians have to get their stomachs pumped after every campaign or what?

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