John Kerry, among others, has signed a letter arguing against the passage of a constitutional amendment to the Massachusetts state constitution defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. Spinsanity is arguing that the AP unfairly labeled this as a pro-gay marriage letter. If John Kerry had signed such a letter a year ago, this interpretation would have been accurate but there are only three ways this can go after the state supreme court ruled that gays were being harmed by current practice and their recent advisory opinion that a civil union bill would be insufficient and a marriage bill was required of the legislature:
1. The legislature passes an amendment defining marriage as purely heterosexual. Gay marriage is defeated
2. The legislature and executive decline to enforce the judicial decision. Jacksonian executive supremacy is resurrected. Gay marriage is defeated
3. The legislature obeys its master, the judiciary, and passes legislation as per the judges' diktat. Gay marriage becomes law in Massachusetts
The letter's text clearly shows Kerry is against option 1. The AP title implies that Kerry's preferred outcome is option 3. If that reading is unfair, the only alternative is option 2, something that is both a stretch given Kerry's past record and something that would be clearly disastrous for his presidential bid.
So for the AP to have been wrong they had to have been too nice to Kerry and were really trying to positively spin a glaring sign of a man unfit to be president. I rather think that the AP was right, though it seems to have retracted its correct characterization (wimps).
Posted by TMLutas at February 12, 2004 04:39 PM