When in Doubt, Deflect Onto the Disenfranchised

President Bush has his panties in an uproar over the recent New Jersey decision paving the way for gay marriage, or its’ separate-but-equal version thereof - civil unions, to go forward in New Jersey. It’s a sad state of affairs when a man attempts to get his and his brethren’s numbers up by browbeating a subject that (a) is none of his business under federalism principles and (b) is hardly comparative to the issues he might otherwise occupy his time with, like civil war in Iraq, nuclear testing in North Korea, the state of torture 60 miles south of Florida, etc.

I have my panties in an uproar too about why the NJ Supreme Court would release its opinion two weeks before a crucial election, rather than after, but then again, it’s not like any of the candidates running anywhere are in favor of gay marriage, even if they happen to be hiding a big, bad gay partner in their closets.

And then, of course, there’s Senator Brownback, who’s not happy unless he’s got talking frozen embryos on his giant board and gays and lesbians (and their evil accomplices!) firmly ensconced in their closets. This week, his tirade is against district court candidate judge Janet T. Neff, who is evidently a fine legal scholar and judge, but just so happened to attend the “wedding” ceremony of a lesbian who had been her neighbor for more than 20 years. How dare she even be seen among such muckrakers! We’ve had Congressmen who were KKK members, use racial epithets, make sexist remarks, and support interrogation techniques bordering on torture and what we’re really worried about at the end of the day is whether some district court appointee put in an RSVP at a wedding that has no legal standing. It makes me wonder what “values” the “values voters” who keep Brownback in office stand for.