And now, some comments on the gay marriage amendment...

I know that this has been making the rounds for the blogosphere, but I do want to include my own comments on it. This is that wonderful snippet of information from Newsweek Magazine:

Though Bush himself has publicly embraced the amendment, he never seemed to care enough to press the matter. One of his old friends told NEWSWEEK that same-sex marriage barely registers on the president's moral radar. "I think it was purely political. I don't think he gives a s--t about it. He never talks about this stuff," said the friend, who requested anonymity to discuss his private conversations with Bush. White House aides, who also declined to be identified, insist that the president does care about banning gay marriage.

Yes, the president doesn't give a crap about banning gay marriage. Newsweek said so. And while we're at it, consider this quote from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - Cheered by conservative supporters,
President Bush gave a push Monday to a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage as the Senate opened debate on an emotional, election-year measure that has little chance of passing.

"Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them," Bush said in a speech. "And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure."

"When judges insist on imposing their arbitrary will on the people, the only alternative left to the people is an amendment to the Constitution — the only law a court cannot overturn," the president said.

"A constitutional amendment would not take this issue away from the states, as some have argued," Bush said. "It would take the issue away from the courts and put it directly before the American people."

This is all election politicking from the Republican Party. I'm not surprised that the president doesn't give a crap about gay marriage--I really don't care if gays and lesbians want to get married. But what we have here is another example of the Republican Party trotting out this tired, old, social-wedge issue to divert the American public's attention away from the serious problems this country faces, and hopefully rally support among the Religious Right wing-nuts to continue voting Republican. And it is even more amazing where this gay marriage issue has wormed its way into a Senate debate just a day before the June 6th primary for eight states--including California.

Eight states are holding primaries today. AP Graphic

In one sense, this Republican social wedge issue still works. Both the right-wing and left-wing blogosphere fired up their base supporters with postings, comments, and exhortations, demanding their congressmen should vote this way or that on the gay marriage amendment for these past two days. Once again, gay marriage comes up as an election day issue.

And what about President Bush? He is just playing along with the Republican election strategy. He will read from his little script about how a constitutional amendment is important to protect the sanctity of marriage until November. Once the election is over, the issue will again die down as the Republicans will hope to continue maintaining control of Congress, and continue passing more legislation to benefit their corporate and elitist interests. If the Republican Party loses control of Congress, then you'll see the Republicans use the gay marriage amendment as a legislative wedge issue to fire up the anger of their own Religious Right wing-nut base for the 2008 presidential elections.

Politics in its most crass form here.