THE 14% MAINSTREAM:

Kerry's Big Time Lie (George Neumayr, 2/6/2004, American Prospect)

Only 14 senators voted against Bill Clinton's Defense of Marriage Act. John Kerry was one of them. Kerry, once proud of that vote, now says, "I'm against gay marriage. Everybody knows that." [...]

One of Kerry's first acts as a senator in the 1980s was to sponsor the federal Gay & Lesbian Civil Rights Bill. (But like most pieces of legislation he sponsored, it died in committee.)

Kerry brags on his campaign website about his 100% rating from the homosexual group the Human Rights Campaign, and takes pride in his opposition to Clinton's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. The policy, Kerry felt, was too conservative.

Kerry made a point of pushing for homosexuals in the military, using his Vietnam Vet credentials to burnish his case. "What is at stake here is the freedom in this country to be who you are, what you are born as," he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to the Boston Globe. "A country that can defeat Hitler is a country that can deal with people holding hands on a base."

Kerry these days is hoping voters forget these comments and this record. Where he once wanted people to know that he was one of the 14 votes against Clinton's defense of marriage bill, now he assures everyone that he will defend marriage. But recall that last year when Pope John Paul II called on Catholic politicians like Kerry to oppose the legalization of homosexual marriage, Kerry rebuked him. "I believe in the church and I care about it enormously," he said. "But I think that it's important to not have the church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in America. President Kennedy drew that line very clearly in 1960, and I believe we need to stand up for that line today."

If the Senator's religion conflicts with his political positions he should leave either the Church or public life. The last thing we need is morally compromised politicians.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 0, 2004 7:04 AM