The Daily Background

Fred Thompson, proving once again that he knows very little about important issues:

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said he’s met frequently with influential social conservatives who are willing to accept his position on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage even though it doesn’t go quite as far as they would like.

Thompson favors a constitutional amendment that bars judges from legalizing gay marriage, but also leaves open the door for state legislatures to approve the practice. He said social and religious conservatives who would prefer an amendment that also bars legislatures from legalizing gay marriage can live with his view.
[…]
“It’ll stop the process in its tracks because it’s all judge-made,” said Thompson. “No state legislature accompanied by a governor’s signature has gone down that road.”

Thompson is, of course, either very disingenuous or entirely wrong about this, depending on how you look at it.

Earlier this year, the legislature in my home state (New Hampshire) approved a very good civil unions package– not all civil unions are created equal– which extends most if not all rights guaranteed to married couples to same-sex couples. The law has been signed by New Hampshire’s moderate Democratic governor John Lynch (sometimes referred to as “Mr 70%” for his approval rating) and will go into effect in 2008. It’ll also allow New Hampshire to recognize full marriages performed in other states.

Additionally, there are similar pending measures in the state legislatures of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, according to Wikipedia.

Technically, no state legislature has approved full marriage equality, but to say that no state legislature has “gone down that road” yet is totally wrong.

Thompson’s ignorance about this issue is not new. When he was first asked where he stood on the issue, he said he was for a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality, only to have his spokesman hurriedly issued an awkward “clarification” saying that he did not support a constitutional amendment after-all.

Earlier
Thompson doesn’t know what his position is on FL oil drilling
Thompson doesn’t know what his position is on the Jena 6
Thompson can’t remember what his position on Terry Shaivo is
Thompson doesn’t know what his position on primary schedule leapfrogging is

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