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| The Log Cabin Republicans released the group’s first-ever national television
advertisement last week challenging the federal marriage amendment backed by
President Bush.
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: ADRIAN BRUNE
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WASHINGTON — The Log Cabin Republicans last week launched a $1 million
TV advertising campaign in swing states targeting President Bush’s support
for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
The 30-second spot opens with Vice President Dick Cheney, framed in grayscale,
speaking clearly and deliberately during his 2000 vice presidential debate
about freedom and his belief that people should be free to enter into any kind
of relationship they choose.
After several images of gay couples and past civil rights battles, Cheney
appears on the screen again and states the position he took gay marriage at
that time: “I don’t think there should necessarily be a federal
policy in this area.” Two words, “We Agree,” follow Cheney’s
remarks.
The ad campaign launched is designed to be simple and powerful, said Patrick
Guerriero, LCR’s executive director. But it was also meant to show the
duplicity of the Bush administration’s recent backing of a federal marriage
amendment in basic shades of black and white.
“The radical right wanted a culture war. They’ve got it now,” Guerriero
said during a news conference announcing the campaign. “This is our line
in the sand. We were forced by a sense of history and responsibility to respond
immediately and harshly.”
Log Cabin’s decision to voice its opinion so forcefully and publicly
against one of President Bush’s election-year initiatives comes in stark
contrast to the group’s late endorsement of him in 2000. The gay rights
group initially endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the primaries and aired
radio ads critical of Bush in California. That opposition led to Bush’s
refusal to meet with LCR leaders after he locked up the nomination.
LCR members said they cautioned the Bush administration against sanctioning
the federal amendment, but once Bush and Cheney officially backed a federal
marriage amendment, the gay Republican organization said it needed to take
measures to keep the party “on the right side of history,” Guerriero
said.
In addition to airing the Cheney ad, Log Cabin officials said they are in
the process of delivering 1,000 copies of the commercial to the doors of key
Republicans across the country.
The large-scale effort by Log Cabin to raise awareness surrounding the marriage
amendment issue marks the first time the group aired television ads in its
27-year history, according to Mark Mead, Log Cabin’s political director.
As a result, he said the group sacrificed funds reserved for buttressing the
campaigns of Republican candidates in the general election — including
Bush’s.
Guerriero said Bush’s support of the marriage amendment prompted the
LCR board to look at U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic Party
nominee. While Guerriero spoke favorably of Kerry and his position on gay marriage
and civil unions in the context of whether the group might endorse President
Bush’s re-election, Log Cabin bylaws only permit the organization to
either endorse the GOP nominee or not.
The group has no plans to amend those bylaws, the organization said this week.
“If this party wants to listen to the advice of Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell
and Pat Robertson, I would remind them that all three are failed presidential
candidates,” Guerriero said.
Guerriero’s strong assertions at a news conference last week seemed
to contrast sentiments he expressed in the New York Times a few days earlier.
Guerriero reiterated in an interview with the paper that Bush’s support
for the federal amendment has imperiled LCR’s endorsement, but he added, “Our
members are intensely conservative. We are not going to let one moment make
us run away scared.”
Mead likened Bush’s proclamation on the amendment to a kick in the stomach,
but LCR has already backed off from demanding the GOP embrace full marriage
rights for gays. Guerriero claimed that the group already knew the Bush campaign
opposed gay marriage, but in the coming weeks, it “wanted to know what
the president was for.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
“As Republicans, it is our obligation to stand up and speak out when
our party is headed in the wrong direction,” Guerriero said. “Loyalty
doesn’t mean checking one’s principles at the door. I believe loyalty
means having the courage to tell someone when they are wrong.”
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