House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently sat down to gush about gay marriage, which, if her enthusiasm is any indication, she thinks is just the best thing ever.
While she’s proud of her home state of California’s decision to give same-sex love the green light, she’s very firm in her belief that nuptials should remain a state-based issues. She’s hopeful, however, that younger generations will stamp out institutional discrimination and squash down anti-gay marriage laws.
Gotta love that optimism!
Tex...
She speaks out of both sides of her mouth. I will never forgive her for taking criminal prosecution of the criminal executive branch “off the table”. She is complicit in the atrocities that Bush, Rove, Rice, and Cheney are all guilty of.
CitizenGeek
Whatever about anything else, Pelosi is a fantastic gay ally.
RPCV
Pelosi is the embodiment of contradiction, incompetence, and danger to national security.
CHURCHILL-Y
“this is a state by state issue”, Well any couples over 50 who are not in MA or CA(for now) and cannot afford the trip, forget it. With leadership and allies like this, there’s no wonder why we are so left behind always.
Her half empty pandering comes after the California ruling and since she’s from SF……… it just shows how important it is after the judicial battles to be all up in the politicians faces and let them know that our votes can’t be taken from granted.
fri
hey, maybe slavery should have been a state-by-state issue too. i love living in a country where my neighbor 10 miles away across the state line has different rights than i do! it’s wacky!
ggreen
Nancy loves to pander. Especially if there is no risk at all, she loves gays because there is no political cost for her. But we here in SF see her for the millionaire friend of the wealthy she is. Nancy doesn’t give a shit about the Constitution or about the civil liberties of all Americans. It doesn’t pay $$$.
charlie
Well, I have my beefs with Pelosi too – particularly on FISA. And I go think she and Congress should have had more backbone in standing up to the Bush administration.
But it’s one thing to write in a blog what should be done, and it’s quite another to actually accomplish anything. Politics is the art of the possible; to get as much as you can while giving up as little as possible. And if you push too far, you may not get anything.
It’d be great to have same-sex marriage legal throughout the US. But if it’s going to be same in every state, you know that means no same-sex marriage anywhere at all. There are more Alabamas than Californias. I’d like to get rid of the Senate and have real proportional representation, but that isn’t going to happen either.
I’ll probably be pissed off at Pelosi again tomorrow about some action she does or doesn’t take or some strategy she seems to be embracing; and I’ll probably think she should push harder and get more. But on the whole, I’m glad that there’s someone in a position of power who knows how the system works; someone whose heart is basically in the right place; and someone who is able to help move this country in the right direction – even if it only is inch by inch.
Mark
Pelosi’s a say anything do anything screw anything sort of politican. I absolutely agree with Tex, RCPV, and Green. Why anyone thinks a Democratic majority will “change” this country is beyond me…we have one right now. The problem is that Bush, Inc. has shown them how to seize power and once they know how, they aren’t ever going to give up a scintilla of it. Pelosi, Obama, McCain…you can call them all McSame in that way. Sure Nancy loves gays–thousands of them vote in her House district. She’d give handjobs to Nazis if thousands of them suddenly emerged to vote there, too.
John
Pelosi is actually from Baltimore. Her family, the D’Alesandro clan, has deep roots in Maryland politics. She personally recruited O’Malley to run against Ehrlich in 2006. In fact, it is safe to say the governor is one of her cronies.
She doesn’t like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer because he comes from a rival faction of the Maryland Democratic Party.
Pelosi doesn’t even live full-time in her San Francisco district. At least not for much of the year. Too many protestors camped outside for one. Even when she’s “in” San Francisco, she spends a great deal of time in Marin County. She also has residences in the DC suburbs and Manhattan. Lets face it, she was never much of a local politician. Her ambition was always the Speakership.
And that’s why I believe her when she says she has nothing against same-sex marriage. While it is true that she has nothing to lose. She doesn’t have anything to gain either. Suppose she gave the Obama / Hillary civil unions answer, what will her Downtown San Francisco constituents do? Vote for a Republican? I don’t think so.