The Closeted President Bush

"As this debate goes forward, we must remember that every American deserves to be treated with tolerance, respect and dignity. All of us have a duty to conduct this discussion with civility and decency toward one another, and all people deserve to have their voices heard." -- President Bush, backing gay marriage ban (6/3/06)

Thanks, Mr. President. I'll take you up on your generous invitation to exercise my First Amendment right, since obviously Alberto Gonzalez has not yet figured out a way to eliminate it via Executive Order.

I'd like to start by saying that I don't believe you. I think your support of this proposed amendment is disingenuous, and I think you know it. I do not believe that you want to be the first president to write discrimination back into the constitution. Those in your inner circle insistently claim you are not a bigot, and I believe them. They say you have close gay friends. They say you are not the kind of guy who wants to get involved in legislating sexuality. Your wife is against this amendment. So is Dick Cheney -- not to mention his daughter, and her "life partner" Heather.

So why are you supporting it? You know it has no chance of passage in the Senate. Why not leave it to the states, as is your answer for so many other sticky problems? Or why not just avoid it altogether, like the Alabama National Guard? Perhaps a 29% approval rating calls for desperate measures. With your party imploding, and the fish rotting from the head down, as it were, I guess someone thought it would be a good idea to show "leadership skills." So we get your half-assed stances on immigration and gay marriage. Fabulous.

Obviously, the more salient answer is that preventing loving, same-sex couples from marrying is just a good ol' Rovian wedge issue, designed to get the faithful out of their trailers and into the polls come November -- the lure being not so much doing God's work, as getting the opportunity to veto someone else's happiness. Only, this isn't American Idol, Mr. President, these are people's families and children you are playing politics with.

Like most readers on this site, I've never been particularly fond of you and your reckless disregard for, well, everything. But I did at least buy into the idea that you were kind of a "straight shooter." That you took your stubborn, misguided positions based on your Crawford, Texas, brush-clearing "gut." But on this one, sorry, I just don't buy it. It's cynical politics at its worst. And, oddly, I think you are more decent than this. Maybe it's time to come out of the closet.