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| James Dobson, whose group Focus on the Family is one of the leading
anti-gay lobbying organizations, threatened to withhold support for President
Bush’s plan to partially privatize Social Security unless Bush aggressively
pursues a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.
COMMENTS |
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WASHINGTON — A coalition of social conservatives
warned the White House last week that they would withhold support for President
Bush’s proposal to partially privatize Social Security unless he enthusiastically
supports a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
In a Jan. 18 letter to White House political adviser Karl Rove, which was disclosed
by the New York Times, the coalition of conservative religious leaders known
as the Arlington Group expressed outrage that Bush appeared to be taking a “defeatist”
attitude toward the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The sternly worded letter arrived at the White House three days before Sen.
Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) reintroduced on Jan. 24 the same constitutional amendment
that would ban same-sex marriage that the Senate defeated last year under the
name of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Allard renamed the measure the Marriage
Protection Amendment.
Twenty-four Republican senators, including Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist
(R-Tenn.), signed on as co-sponsors to Allard’s amendment. Sen. Johnny
Isakson (R-Ga.) is among the co-sponsors; Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is not.
No Democratic senators agreed to become co-sponsors of the amendment.
The letter from the Arlington Group also came one week after Bush angered social
conservative leaders by hinting in an interview with the Washington Post that
he might not push hard for a constitutional ban on gay marriage since the Senate
was unlikely to pass it any time soon.
“We couldn’t help but notice the contrast between how the president
is approaching the difficult issue of Social Security privatization, where the
public is deeply divided, and the marriage issue, where public opinion is overwhelmingly
on his side,” the Times quoted the Arlington Group letter as saying.
“Is he prepared to spend significant political capital on privatization
but reluctant to devote the same energy to preserving traditional marriage?”
the Times quoted the letter as saying. “If so, it would create outrage
with countless voters who stood with him just a few weeks ago, including an
unprecedented number of African-Americans, Latinos and Catholics who broke with
tradition and supported the president solely because of this issue.”
Senate GOP leaders didn’t include the marriage ban on a list of their
top 10 legislative priorities for the next two years. But Frist said Jan. 24
that the amendment might not reach the Senate floor until 2006.
The proposed constitutional amendment was defeated in the Senate and House
last year after it failed to receive the required two-thirds majority vote.
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), who introduced the marriage amendment into
the House last year, was expected to reintroduce the measure within the next
few weeks.
Christopher Barron, a spokesperson for the national gay group Log Cabin Republicans,
said the developments surrounding the marriage amendment over the past week
show that the social conservative coalition is at odds with the president and
most Republican leaders in Congress.
“For them to send a letter like this, at this critical juncture, threatening
to yank their support for something as critical as Social Security reform, is
really unconscionable,” Barron said.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political group,
said Bush used a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to gain votes
in the election, but that strategy now seems to be dividing the Republican Party.
“President Bush promised discrimination to his extremist base and now
they want to him to deliver,” said HRC Political Director Winnie Stachelberg.
“This should come as no surprise.”
The marriage amendment surfaced Tuesday during a White House press briefing
when reporters asked press secretary Scott McClellan if Bush planned to raise
the issue in a meeting that day with a group of African-American leaders.
“[T]he president is very firm in his belief that marriage is a sacred
institution between a man and a woman, and he is concerned about steps that
have been taken by activist judges,” McClellan said. “That’s
why the president believes it’s necessary for us to move forward on a
constitutional amendment to protect the sanctity of marriage.”
Asked if social conservative leaders were misunderstanding Bush’s position
on a constitutional amendment, McClellan said, “Well, I’m making
it very clear to you what level of priority he places on it. It remains a high
priority for the president, for the reasons he has stated and for the reasons
I reiterated again today.”
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