If the GOP uses this issue properly, they could see a landslide of epic proportions. And even if they don't, if *we* publicize the issue enough, we could have a serious impact.
Posted on 02/15/2004 7:32:17 AM PST by demlosers
DEMOCRAT frontrunner John Kerry may be shrugging off one potential sex scandal, but sex of a different kind is taking centre stage in this year’s battle for the US presidency.
Kerry has been forced to deny unsourced claims that he had an affair with an intern on national radio, but the US mainstream media has otherwise shunned the report on the right wing Drudge Report website and at the moment it looks unlikely these allegations will become a fully-fledged scandal.
But what is becoming a major problem for the Massachusetts senator centres around the extraordinary actions of 100 gay and lesbian couples in San Francisco over the past few days which have pushed gay marriage as an issue right up the election agenda along with security and taxation.
The mayor of San Francisco has defied the law to issue nearly 100 same-sex marriage licences, and weddings were continuing this weekend inside City Hall despite efforts by the conservative Campaign for California Families to obtain restraining orders to put a stop them.
And because tomorrow is President’s Day holiday, the happy couples have an extra day to get down the aisle before legal proceedings can start. To add insult to the conservatives’ injury, Mayor Gavin Newsom - a campaigner for equal gay rights - ruled that City Hall should stay open yesterday for Valentine’s Day. It would usually be shut on Saturdays.
Far away in Massachusetts this flurry of civil disobedience is fuelling what is now a major problem for Democrat front-runner Kerry,
who has made contradictory statements on the issue. Politicians in his home state have been holding a heated debate over two days after a court ruling in favour of same-sex unions. Campaigners are now pushing for an amendment to that ruling which would reinforce the position that marriage is a union only between a man and a woman.
This can only be good news for the Republicans, keen to present Kerry as a Massachusetts patrician liberal out of touch with the mainstream.
Bush denounced the ruling earlier this month by the Massachusetts Supreme Court as "deeply troubling" and social conservative activists say they had received a White House pledge that the president will throw his weight behind a constitutional amendment to ban homosexual weddings.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading group of social conservatives, said: "I would not be surprised at all to see the president come out very soon calling on Congress to act. What this [Massachusetts] court is about to do is unleash chaos on our society."
But legal analysts predicted opponents of gay marriage would find it difficult to nullify the court ruling. Paul Martinek, editor of Lawyers Weekly USA, said: "The fat lady has sung and she is singing the wedding march. It’s clear from reading the ruling that there’s no basis on which the court will OK anything other than marriage."
The federal government and 38 states have laws to ban the recognition of gay marriages. Vermont has endorsed civil unions, which are legally similar to marriage, giving both partners the same rights as heterosexual couples. But the Massachusetts ruling paves the way for the first legal gay marriage on May 17. Any constitutional amendment will not come into force till 2006 allowing for two years of ceremonies.
One poll last week showed 60% of Americans are against legalising same-sex marriages, while 31% in favour. Legalising gay marriage is also unpopular among key Democratic voters, in particular African Americans in the south, Catholics and Hispanics who are traditional social conservatives.
Pat Buchanan, the Republican who twice has run for president, said gay marriage is the wedge issue in the 2004 campaign and that Bush will benefit from it. He said: "John Kerry, if he supports it [gay marriage], is going to be swallowing hemlock."
In this campaign Kerry said he would not support a constitutional ban: "I believe and have fought for the principle that we should protect the fundamental rights of gay and lesbian couples." But he added: "I believe the right answer is civil unions. I oppose gay marriage and disagree with the Massachusetts Court’s decision."
Yet two years ago Kerry joined 85 of his Senate colleagues in comparing opposition to gay marriage with 1960s southerners trying to outlaw interracial marriages. He was also one of just 14 senators to vote against Bill Clinton’s Defence of Marriage Act.
Now that Kerry is the clear favourite for the Democratic nomination, the gloves are off. The Drudge Report, the internet site hosted by Matt Drudge which first reported the Monica Lewinsky scandal, said serveral US media outlets were investigating reports of a sex scandal involving Kerry’s relationship with an unnamed 20-year-old former Associated Press reporter.
The fat lady has sung and she is singing the wedding march
The cable news channel MSNBC put the report to Kerry on Friday. He replied: "There’s nothing to report, nothing to talk about... no."
The reporter was allegedly approached by a journalist, prompting Kerry to urge her to leave the country. Drudge reported the woman, who had been involved with Kerry for two years from spring 2001, fled to a friend’s house in Kenya. But as the press descended on the area, her host Hannah Schwartzman said: "I don’t understand what all this is about but they’re no longer in the house."
Tuesday was a day of sweeping victories for Kerry. His big wins in two Southern primaries, Virginia and Tennessee, gave him 12 states out of 14 and were enough to knock Wesley Clark out of the race. Clark later endorsed the Kerry campaign. In Wisconsin, where the next primary is to be held on Tuesday, Kerry leads the polls.
'This is a question of human rights'
MARY McCarthy, 65, and Bonnie Winokar, 60, have been a couple for 17 years, and between them they have as much experience with marriage as any gay couple in America.
They had a commitment ceremony in their home in Maynard, Massachusetts, in 1991 and a civil union in Vermont in 2001, "just for fun".
They are already drawing up the guest list and the menu of champagne and cake for the wedding they hope to have this summer.
McCarthy was married to a man for 23 years and active in the Catholic Church before she came out as a lesbian and left the church. Her three children and three grandchildren will attend. "I’ve seen it from both sides, and I like this side a whole lot better," McCarthy said.
The two say they are no different from any other married couple. They retired together in 2001, Winokar from teaching high school maths and McCarthy from being a clinical chemist at a hospital.
Winokar would like them to take the same last name, but McCarthy wants to keep the same name as her children. "They want to give us half a loaf, instead of the whole loaf," McCarthy said of civil unions. "It’s a question of human rights."
But the two are concerned about politics too, and about whether gay marriage will hurt the Democratic Party’s chances of beating George Bush in the presidential elections. "The most important thing is getting rid of Bush," Winokar said.
In contrast, Lee and Geoff Marchbank, from Guilford, Connecticut, are married with three children. They attend a congregational church and their views are typical of churchgoers in the United States. Lee Marchbank said: "I think marriage is an institution sanctified by God and to allow gay marriage is to make a mockery of that."
Her husband added: "Marriage is about the communion between a man and a woman and is the fabric of American society. How can same-sex marriages touch that? By all means give them pension and life insurance rights, but marriage is sacred
Therefore, I feel safe to say the San Francisco Mayor was entirely out of line, not only because I strongly disagree with a proponent of gay marriage, but because I condemn a government official for clearly defying the rule of law.
Druge right wing? I think not. Druge reports honestly the facts, which is a reporters obligation. It just so happens that the media can't handle honest reporting when it does not agree with their agenda. Honest reporting makes Druge right wing, typical liberal Toro KaKa.
Wonder if Arnold has considered arresting this fool. He has to be considering it, but whether or not he has the stones to do it....who knows.
http://www.massinsider.com/archives/001261.phtml
Damn, that's even worse than a malfunctioning wardrobe...
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