The Gist

Fred Thompson Already Screwing up on Marriage

Fred Thompson seems to be off to a doozy of a start. It's hard to imagine that the religious zealot base of his party is going to come out for his loopy marriage amendment idea, particularly considering that he got the facts on the current status of marriage for gays all wrong, claiming in Iowa on Saturday that "there's been no state legislature in the nation that has [legalized marriage for gays] and [it's] not likely, too."

Duh! California's legislature just did it -- for the second time!

Fumbling Freddie, who is divorced from his first wife and is now married to 40-year-old Jeri Kehn, is pushing an alternative constitutional amendment to the federal marriage amendment. His amendment wouldn't ban states from legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians (as the FMA does) but would prevent states from having to recognize marriages among gay men and lesbians from other states. Of course, this is precisely what the Defense of Marriage Act does, but many conservatives are afraid DOMA will one day be ruled unconstitutional. Thus, this is an attempt by Freddie to placate them by showing support for enshrining DOMA in the Constitution while hoping that Republican moderates (and Democrats and independents in a general election) will see this as a less harsh position against the gays.

But there is no way in hell that this plan is going to fly with the fundies, who do not want any state to recognize marriages among gays, and want Massachusetts undone, as creepy Williard (his real name) Romney is promising. And that is particularly true since Thomspon revealed that he doesn't even understand, from the zealots' perspective, how successful the homosexual activists have become. Not only did the California Legislature pass a marriage bill twice (though Schwarzenegger won't sign it), but New York's Assembly has passed such a bill and Gov. Spitzer helped introduce it. The Republican-controlled New York State Senate is an obstacle right now (they won't even bring it to a vote) but control by the Dems is only a few seats away, perhaps even by the next election. And if the next governor of California is a Democrat that state will likely become the next one to legalize marriage for gays.

In Iowa, meanwhile, a judge just overturned the state-DOMA and there's a good chance the decision will be upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court, which has a history of ruling in favor of civil rights, legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians in Iowa perhaps in less than two years. A state constitutional ban couldn't get on the ballot in Iowa until 2012; it would first have to pass both chambers of the Democratic-controlled Legislature twice, in two consecutive years. So, Iowa as well has a shot at relatively quickly becoming the next state where marriage is legal for non-heterosexuals.

Thompson expounded on his plan in Iowa, and gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network , which was quick to point out that he got all the facts wrong. His people then sent a correction claiming that Thompson didn't mean to say that no legislature had passed a marriage bill but rather that no state had (and likely wouldn't). But that was idiotic and made him seem even more out of touch since, as I described, a few states are in fact very close to doing so, and you better believe the fundies know that.

Of course, Thompson's idea for amending the Constitution to allow states to ignore contracts signed in other states only in one area -- marriage for gays and lesbians -- is as mean-spirited and discriminatory as the FMA. That will be an easy point for gay activists to make. So I'm not sure exactly who Thompson is aiming to make happy.

UPDATE: I want to point out that some observers do believe that a measure to bar gays and lesbians from marriage could reach the Iowa ballot as early as fall of 2010 if Democrats actually allowed a vote on it beginning in the next session, which seems unlikely, as this Des Moines Register column explains. An Iowa activist speculated to me that 2012 would be earliest based on the Iowa Legislature actually becoming controlled by Republicans, who might run on this issue in the next couple of elections cycles, and/or the Democratic governor putting pressure on Democrats to kick this thing past the year he is up for re-election, which is 2010.

UPDATE II: Well, that didn't take long. Story just posted in the past few hours from AP shows the zealots are definitely not happy with Fred's stumble out of the gate. Some, like James Dobson at Focus on the Family, were not onboard from back when the rumors of a Thompson run began, holding out for Gingrich to jump in. But now the rest are starting to pile on. They are not seeing a "blood trail." Yes, go and read it.