laputa64

when the massachussetts supreme court ruled on february 4 that gay couples must be given the right to marry, it handed Bush a powerful tool to use in his re-election campaign. even though kerry opposes gay marriage, bush will try to saddle him with his home court's controversial ruling. kerry is from massachussetts and the democratic convention is held in massachusetts. Karl Rove who is Bush's strategist in his campaign and in the white house, will make it an issue no matter what Kerry says. there's no denying the gay marriage flap is tailor-made for Bush-Rove style politics. they have the perfect combination for a classic wedge campaign. while they demonize kerry on the right, they can also weaken him on the left. if he appears to hedge on the issue, he risks losing support from working-class democrats and minorities. but if he proclaims his opposition too loudly, he risks driving away liberals who support gay-rights. the issue couldn't come at a better time for bush. his poll numbers are sagging as the occupation in iraq drags on, amid charges that his administration cooked the intelligence to hype the threat of hussein. the economy continues to lag, and the president's own spotty history in the air national guard is back in the news, in sharp contrast with kerry's record as a decorated war veteran. what better time to launch a new salvo in the culture wars. bush and rove have a history of using divisive social issues to win elections - but they usually rely on surrogates to do the dirtiest work. leaving bush free to claim the moral high ground. in 1994, when rove managed bush's campaign against texas governor ann richards, the popular incumbent suddenly faced a whispering campaign about her times to the gay community. a state senator that worked with richards questioned her appointment of "avowed homosexuals" and others spread rumors about the governpr's own sexuality. six years later. when bush ran for the republican presidential nomination against sen. john mccain, the rumor campaign began again. in the days before the south carolina primary, word spread that mccain was mentally unstable, that he had "sired" an illegitimate black child and that his wife had a drug problem. after mccain met with a group of gay republicans, somebody sent an anonymous letter about the meeting to state legislators who had endorsed him. others distributed fliers calling mccain the "fag candidate." and since it was the high court in kerry's home state that approved gay marriage. christian groups are preparing to go after him personally. never mind that kerry opposes gay marriage or that massachussetts chief justice margaret marshall. who wrote the decision, was named to her position by paul cellucci, a repucblican governor who is now bush's ambassador to canada. kerry himself did vote against the defense of marriage act in 1996 which will give them ammunition against him but he is very clear on his standing that he believes in giving the rights to the state and taking the power away from the federal government to deny marriages approved by the state whether gay or straight.
a seperate issue at hand: you want to talk about people going to the extreme....
it's against the law in kansas for kids under sixteen to have consensual sex. but if the kids are gay, it's thirteen times worse. that's the verdict of a kansas appeals court, which has ruled that it's OK to punish gay teenagers more harshly for having underage sex. the decision upholds the sentence of matthew limon, a developmentally disabled teen who had consensual sex with a fourteen-year-old boy. limon is currently serving SEVENTEEN YEARS behind bars - but if his partner had been a girl, it would only have been FIFTEEN MONTHS. judge henry green ruled that the harsher sentense is justified by "traditional sexual mores concerning marriage" that are vital "to the very survival of the human race."