Coward

President George W. Bush has just committed the most cowardly act of his cowardly Administration, more cowardly than "My Pet Goat" or picking a fight with Iraq or failing to capture Osama Bin Laden when he had him cornered in Tora Bora. More cowardly than having less press conferences than any President in history, more cowardly than holding all of his campaign rallies with canned and screened crowds and questions, and doing the same again on his Social Security tour debacle.

Today he choose to put the full weight and majesty of the highest elected office in our land behind prejudice, bigotry and the targeting of a historically persecuted minority of our great America.

From the New York Times:

The president, speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, said an amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman was necessary because too many "activist judges" had tried to overturn efforts by voters in several states to ban marriages or civil unions between same-sex partners.

"I call on the Congress to pass this amendment, send it to the states for ratification, so we can take this issue out of the hands of overreaching judges and put it back where it belongs: in the hands of the American people," the president told a gathering of invited social and religious conservatives.

It's like the Bizarro Lincoln. Never before in U.S. history has a President supported a Constitutional Amendment to actually limit rather than enlarge the Civil Rights of a minority group of citizens.

Perhaps the best headline is from Yahoo!:

Bush rallies gay marriage opponents

And what better crowd to be rallying?

Ah, but this is a gang of thieves that could not be less concerned with the civil rights of anyone other than their cronies. Even over-achieving Press Secretary Tony Snow, the literal mouthpiece of the Administration, cannot even define the term, "civil rights".

Picking on someone less powerful than you for prestige is a tactic commonly associated with schoolyard bullies. That's exactly the area, apparently the only area, where smug George Bush has a winning record. He's not one to win fairly; he can't even present an honest reason for supporting the evil FMA. He's whining, like so many Republican Conservatives, about activist judges.

Woo, scary.

Why not just come out and say, gay people do not deserve a seat at the table, not the America table?

Why not just say, I'm pandering. I don't really give a shit, I'm just trying to shore up my enabling GOP Congress' support before this crucial election, which if they lose will lead to my investigation.

Here his Log Cabin Republicans coming out against him. Finally! By now you might think it'd take rounding up for camps to get a statement like this:

Mr. President, gay and lesbian Americans pay taxes, contribute to community and family life across our great nation, and worship the same all-loving and compassionate God. Thousands of gay and lesbian Americans, under your command, serve proudly in our nation's military, fighting to win the war on terror and promoting liberty across the globe. Your effort to codify discrimination against our families, including men and women in uniform while the nation is at war, is offensive and unworthy of the office of the Presidency. Great Republican Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan have united Americans and appealed to our best hopes, not our worst fears.

Desperation, sure, but of the most poisonous kind.

The upside: it'll all be over in a decade. Most young people simply do not care about this issues because, while anti-gay prejudice will always exist in some twisted hearts, young folks have grown up with a more open society regarding sexual orientation. Straights are exponentially less freaked out when a friend or family member comes out of the closet than ever before. Everyone, by and large, stays friends.

Corante notes that coward Bush's hiding behind the anti-gay marriage discriminatory majority is exactly what happened with marriage between blacks and caucasians:

In December of 1912, an amendment to the Constitution was introduced to abolish racial intermarriage:

Intermarriage between negros or persons of color and Caucasians . . . within the United States . . . is forever prohibited.

Said the now forgotten sponsoring Representative as he introduced the measure:

"Intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is abhorrent and repugnant. It is subversive to social peace. It is destructive of moral supremacy, and ultimately this slavery to black beasts will bring this nation to a fatal conflict..."

George W. Bush, big pussy. I mean, huge. Is there an extra circle of hell for this kind of ugly pandering?

But there's hope. From an email posted by gay Republican and apostate Bush/Iraq War supporter Andrew Sullivan on his blogsite today:

Having just watched George Bush speaking in his desultory way about gay marriage, I felt a secret glee rise up within me. I think we just watched the death of the opposition to gay marriage.

You can read for yourself the brief reasoning, ringing refreshingly true. The letter ends:

Just as George Wallace's extremism nailed shut the sarcophagus of Jim Crow, so this George will be trotted out as the personification of the bigotry of an era passed. Sometimes, a man's reputation rings louder then his arguments. George Bush's failed Presidency will drag this issue down as does a drowning man a healthy swimmer.

Amen to all that.