Don't Want No Loving

Guess what Monday is? Monday is the day President Bush will speak about an issue near and dear to his heart and the hearts of many conservatives. It's also the day before the Senate votes on the very same thing. Is it the war? Deficits? Health insurance? Immigration? Iran? North Korea?

Not even close. No, the president is going to talk about amending the Constitution in order to ban gay marriage. This is something that absolutely, positively has no chance of happening, nada, zippo, none. But that doesn't matter. Mr. Bush will take time to make a speech. The Senate will take time to talk and vote on it, because it's something that matters to the Republican base.

This is pure politics. If has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in gay marriage. It's blatant posturing by Republicans, who are increasingly desperate as the midterm elections approach. There's not a lot else to get people interested in voting on them, based on their record of the last five years.

But if you can appeal to the hatred, bigotry, or discrimination in some people, you might move them to the polls to vote against that big, bad gay married couple that one day might in down the street.

So says Jack Cafferty of the Cafferty File. See video & transcript at Crooks and Liars.

As a warm up, Bush did a little cheerleading for the right on his radio address, see
And Now, For Some Saturday Morning Pandering, in which he argued:

Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious, and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all. [...]

In our free society, people have the right to choose how they live their lives. And in a free society, decisions about such a fundamental social institution as marriage should be made by the people -- not by the courts. [...]

As Daily Kos blogger Georgia10 noted:

The President couldn't have made his position any clearer. Courts should not be overturning the will of the people when it comes who should and should not be allowed to marry. Now, which enterprising White House reporter will ask whether the President thinks that Loving v. Virginia should be overturned?

(Via Eschaton).

UPDATE: The comparison to Loving v. Virginia is very apt. As noted in The Importance of...: The Anti-Miscegenation Amendment, "[i]n December of 1912, an amendment to the Constitution was introduced to abolish racial intermarriage:

Intermarriage between negros or persons of color and Caucasians . . . within the United States . . . is forever prohibited.

Ah yes, that old will of the people. We wouldn't want to deny "the people" their will to be prejudiced, now would we?

Tags: Bush, Politics, Civil Liberties, Video