Even John Kerry's liberal supporters are growing increasingly
worried over their candidates wishy-washy, both-sides-now stance on
a range of issues, including gay marriage. Washington Post
columnist Marjorie Williams describes herself as "a charter member
of the ABB Society -- Anybody But Bush." But, she writes in a
column titled "Win
One for the Flipper," of increasing disillusionment with Kerry.
"I finally lost my grip, though, when I opened my newspaper a few
days ago to read of Kerry's latest lunge in the direction of some
politically feasible position on gay marriage," she writes. In
particular, when the Supreme Court of Massachusetts interpreted the
state's constitution to require the option of gay
marriage:
Kerry responded by endorsing an amendment to the state's constitution that would forbid gay marriage but allow civil union. He was the only member of his congressional delegation to take this stance, for good reason: Endorsing a constitutional amendment at the state level seriously undermines the arguments for fighting an amendment at the federal level.
The
Washington Blade reports that Kerry's recent statements reverse
a position he took two years ago when he signed a letter beseeching
the Massachusetts legislature to terminate a similar amendment.
Also noted by the Blade: After Julia Thorne, Kerry's wife of 18
years and mother of his two daughters,
requested an increase in alimony in 1995, Kerry sought an annulment of their marriage from the Catholic Church, a move observers saw as retaliatory. Kerry eventually received the annulment from the Boston diocese despite Thorne's vehement objections.
The Blade also recounts that in a Washington Post interview last
year, Kerry said, "I have a belief that marriage is for the purpose
of procreation and it's between men and women." Kerry's current
marriage to heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry is childless.
Yes, just another defender of the sanctity of traditional marriage.
Bush may be dead wrong and politically unsupportable, but at least
he believes what he believes. You just can't say the same for
Kerry.
A House Divided.
If you haven't read Andrew Sullivan's column on the Culture
War, Reloaded, written for the Sunday Times of London and now
posted on Sullivan's website, take a look. He writes:
There is no more drastic action available in America than amending the Constitution itself. Banning civil marriage for gays in the founding document itself therefore represented a huge and risky upping of the ante in the strife over marital rights.
--President Bush came to office pledging to be a "uniter not a divider." But the nation under his leadership has rarely been more polarized. The war is upon us. And this election will be its battleground.
And as some of us see it, neither side, sadly, is worth cheering
for.
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