HateFest 2006

In anticipation of the upcoming midterms, President Bush and his team are working hard to get out the hate:

"The campaign against gay marriage is scheduled to get the full White House treatment on Monday — words from President Bush in front of assembled VIPs and a bank of television cameras. "

Fortunately, the religious conservative base -already near mutiny over how Bush has handled illegal immigration reform, the budget, the ports and his judicial nominations- are sharp enough to know when they are being played:

"I'm going to go and hear what he says, but we already know it is a ruse," said Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, which opposes gay marriage. "We're not buying it. We're going to go and watch the dog-and-pony show, [but] it's too little, too late."

Majority Leader Bill Frist says he will bring the amendment up for debate in the Senate this week. That's good. With gas prices and healthcare costs skyrocketing, and the war in Iraq raging on, what this country really needs is for the Senate to get tied up in a nice long debate over what kind of people are permitted to love each other.

Then again, Majority Leader Bill Frist also went to the Senate floor on two seperate occasions to argue that, based on some videos he had reviewed, Florida doctors with access to lab tests, and um, you know, the actual patient, had made a serious mistake about Terry Schiavo.

He wasn't telling the truth then, but he was happy to lie for the sake of energizing the base. So maybe his promise to bring the amendment up next week is also a little white one.