This week, Andrew Sullivan somehow managed to pat himself on the back following Bush’s announcement that he does too support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage:
I knew this was coming, but the way in which it has been delivered and the actual fact of its occurrence is so deeply depressing it is still hard to absorb.
The way in which it has been delivered is shocking? WTF? Being shocked about the delivery is about on par with someone sitting in the hospital after his spouse tried to kill him and answering the question why did you stay with her with: Well, I knew this was coming but I thought she would use a knife instead of a gun. If you knew this was coming dipshit, you should have gotten the fuck out of there.
Sullywatch offers the best collection of comments on Sullivan’s epiphany. Though we show up a couple of days late to this party, we wondered if evidence could be found that Sully knew this was coming. The answer? Sadly, No!
On Bush’s apparent incoherence:
Those people who believe this president cannot speak in coherent sentences don’t realize how clever his alleged incoherence is. … All in all: a carefully tailored piece of obfuscation. It seems to me that, from this statement, we neither have an unconditional endorsement of the FMA nor an uncategorical defense of states’ rights with regard to marriage. December 2003.
The result is that the issue of same-sex marriage – most specifically the issue of a Constitutional Amendment to ban it – is now dividing Republicans while uniting Democrats. That’s one good reason the president hasn’t endorsed it so far. And if he’s sensible about maintaining his own electoral coalition, he won’t. December 2003.
Others, such as vice-president Dick Cheney, have said they believe that marriage should remain a state matter, as it always has been. December 2003.
“Amending the Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman would be unwise for two reasons.” This is the Cheney position. November 2003.
THE 9/11 GENERATION: More pro-Bush, more pro-gay marriage, more pro privatizing social security – according to Gallup. Party affiliation? 45 percent Independent; 30 percent Republican; 24 percent Democrat. November 2003.
The president and vice-president have equally not engaged in the demonization of gay people that is becoming the core principle of far right groups like the Family Research Council. November 2003.
I’m also an optimist on this issue, because I’m a believer in the promise of America and the good will of the citizens of this country. November 2003.
And our favorite, when Andrew went to great lengths not to understand what the President was saying:
Yesterday, the president mercifully didn’t commit explicitly to that. The official statement read: […]
I’m not sure what this can mean. Is the president saying he or others in Congress have a right to intervene in the internal affairs of a state’s judiciary or legislature? Surely not. Is he saying that a president has the obligation to determine whether some civil laws are now “sacred” and therefore unavailable to those outside the precincts of some religious beliefs? Are atheists going to be denied the right to civil marriage next? Again, surely not. Or is he threatening to support a Constitutional Amendment to permanently write the disenfranchisement of a minority into the very founding document of the United States? Let’s hope not. Massachusetts needs time to thrash this issue out. If this president wants to stake his re-election on writing a minority of citizens out of the federal Constitution, then the stakes will be as unnecessarily high as one can imagine, and the already deep cultural divide in this country will widen still further. This president doesn’t need that. It’s not what many of his centrist and moderate supporters want. And he has far more important things to do. In those vital things, most specifically the war on terror, the last thing he needs is to polarize this country even more. Please, Mr. President. Don’t. November 2003.
There may, in the next year, be a bitter cultural fight over a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage or any marriage-like benefits to gay couples in the U.S. – a fight that could polarize the country still further and push Bush into the arms of his religious right base. October 2003.
We now know where Santorum stands. But what about his party? April 2003.
PS: Did we see it coming? Like everyone else on the planet, yes, we did.