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June 16, 2008
The Johns (McCain, Kerry) on marriage
Posted by: Chris
Over the weekend, John McCain hosted a meeting for disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters in a quixotic effort to woo them to the GOP side. I can only imagine what my friend Kevin thinks about these militant Clintonistas breaking bread with McCain, but there seems to be no end of pandering in trying to scoop them up.
Ben Smith of Politico.com reports that McCain disguised his stated preference for Supreme Court justices in the hard-right mold of John Roberts and Samuel Alito by instead pointing out to the Hillary backers that he voted to confirm Bill Clinton's nominees -- Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer. Never mind the mammoth difference between the range of nominees a senator would vote to confirm and the narrow scope of choices he would make from the Oval Office himself.
And then this:
Another person who was present, but asked not to be named to avoid conflict with fellow Democrats, said he'd pressed a McCain staffer on McCain's position on same-sex marriage.
The staffer "said it was the same as [John] Kerry's position," he said.
That answer is the type of half-truth that only a Clintonista could love; it all depends on what you're definition of "same" is. Yes, McCain and Kerry both oppose gay marriage, both opposed a federal marriage amendment and both have backed amendments to state constitutions that would ban same-sex couples from marrying.
But on these and so many other points, there are all sorts of meaningful differences between the two:
- Kerry voted against and favors the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act; McCain does not.
- McCain's FMA opposition is based on states' rights; Kerry's is based on not writing discrimination against gays into our nation's founding document.
- McCain has conditioned his FMA opposition, saying he would support a federal amendment if DOMA is struck down, if judges "impose" (i.e., protect equal rights) gay marriage on a second state, or a lot of folk get worked up about the issue.
- Kerry no longer backs state constitutional amendments on gay marriage.
- Kerry had previously supported a limited state constitutional amendment banning gays from marrying; he otherwise supports civil unions, recognized in a way equal to marriage by the federal government.
- McCain supports state constitutional amendments that ban gay marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships and even D.P. benefits for public workers and students at public universities.
- And, of course, Kerry never tried to use gay marriage as an applause line in public rallies, much less as a way to deflect questions about his own infidelity and abuse of the marital institution.
Otherwise, yeah, John McCain's position on gay marriage is "the same" as John Kerry's.
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Comments
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heh John Roberts is a "hard right" Chief Justice?
I'm not trying to deflect McCain's true thoughts on gay marriage but John Kerry only changed his tune cause he's not running for president anymore.
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Hi, just discovered your blog thanks to Andrew Sullivan's linkage.
My husband-to-be and I (appointment tomorrow morning at the Sacramento County Clerk's office) were Federal Club members of HRC who are not renewing.
We've registered our wedding at the Equality CA PAC site because all $$$ raised will stay in CA to fight the ballot initiative.
I'm am so over anything to do with HRCs.
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This is said with respect and with, I suppose, some level of both personal distance and involvement at the same time. I am not a gay person and I do not want to marry anyone, but most of my best friends are gay, and I was actually at the San Francisco City Hall yesterday, to stand up for two of my oldest friends at their wedding (a lesbian couple who have been together twenty years). That said, I think that y'all may be missing the point a bit by trying to put our politicians on the spot on this issue (the Democrats, that is). We all know where everyone stands, basically. Why try to create sound bites that the opposition can use against us? Let Kerry, or Obama, or Clinton for that matter, have a little wiggle room, for heavens sake. Does anyone seriously think that John McCain or his ilk will be better for gay rights than any Democrat? If not, then maybe cut the good guys a wee bit 'o slack. Just a thought.
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This is said with respect and with, I suppose, some level of both personal distance and involvement at the same time. I am not a gay person and I do not want to marry anyone, but most of my best friends are gay, and I was actually at the San Francisco City Hall yesterday, to stand up for two of my oldest friends at their wedding (a lesbian couple who have been together twenty years). That said, I think that y'all may be missing the point a bit by trying to put our politicians on the spot on this issue (the Democrats, that is). We all know where everyone stands, basically. Why try to create sound bites that the opposition can use against us? Let Kerry, or Obama, or Clinton for that matter, have a little wiggle room, for heavens sake. Does anyone seriously think that John McCain or his ilk will be better for gay rights than any Democrat? If not, then maybe cut the good guys a wee bit 'o slack. Just a thought.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Kevin on Jun 16, 2008 11:11:07 AM:
Chris: Well, to answer your question I am not the least bit surprised at how craven the Clinton militants would become. That story isn't over by a long-shot, and there is no one but the Clintons themselves to blame (if one wants to get into blaming). But there were far too many facts missing from Ben Smith's Politico piece to know exactly what was said in that meeting, or who of substance was there from the Clinton faction. You were quick to jump on a quote by someone referring to what someone else said. In fairness, though, the headline about Kerry's own flip-flop on gay marriage said it all about him: he was against it before he was for it. Again - the question remains, do Obama or McCain care at all about gay issues, or do they care more about their own asses? We will see the answer much more clearly as we get closer to November, that is if we do our job in pressing them both effectively.