"I heard it through the grapevine!"
PREZ TO BACK GAY-WED BAN
NY Post
February 20, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - President Bush's political director has told a group of prominent conservatives that Bush would soon publicly endorse a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Bay Buchanan, sister of former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, said she was one of several conservatives who heard the message from political director Karl Rove two weeks ago.
"We were told by Karl Rove that the president would support the constitutional amendment - not just that he would endorse it, but also that he would fight for it," Bay Buchanan said.
Specifically, Rove told an alliance of conservatives known as the Arlington Group that Bush would back the amendment being put forward by Colorado Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and that his statement would come "sooner rather than later."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had not yet decided whether to support a constitutional amendment.
In New York, the openly gay Republican mayor of upstate Plattsburgh said he supports same-sex marriage. "I am on the opposite side of this issue [from most Republican officials] - I understand that - but, as a gay man, I have to fight for equality," Mayor Daniel Stewart told the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh.
In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Richard Daley said he would have "no problem" with Cook County issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in Chicago.
Daley urged sympathy for same-sex couples because "they love each other just as much as anyone else."
The debate over gay marriage heated up when San Francisco's mayor last week issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the highest court in Massachusetts struck down a ban on gay marriage.
The city of San Francisco said yesterday it will sue the state of California seeking to declare the state law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman unconstitutional.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement backing the state, saying, "I will abide by the oath I took when I was sworn in to uphold California's laws."
NEW YORK POST |
