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1. This is the difference between Republican and Democratic leadership.

   Governor Deval Patrick's move is based on sound legal reasoning, and it accomplishes something real and positive for a once unfairly maligned group of Americans.  What he does actually improves lives.  No straight marriages are hurt in the process.

   Former Governor Mitt Romney's actions, which were based on a hatred of gays and a misuse of Biblical scriptures, did nothing to improve heterosexual marriage rates.  All the state money and time he wasted on "defending traditional marriage" did nothing for the divorce rate from straight marriages, and did nothing to change the number of out-of-wedlock children born to heterosexuals.  

   One guy is progressive and sensible and his policies dovetail with those in other civilized countries.  The other is backwards and wasteful and just a lot of hateful talk adding up to nothing.  It really is the difference between Democrats/liberals and Republicans/conservatives.  

   It's really moving to read those testimonials from gay couples.  Ask any straight couple you know how Republican Romney's "defense of traditional marriage" makes their marriage stronger and you'll only get a derisive laugh.  It just shows what a joke Republican leadership on this issue is, and how, years from now, they'll look as pathetic as anti-Civil Rights leaders in the 60s look to us today.
   

   Posted by: SGR | Apr 2, 2007 10:26:12 AM

   
   

2. Andy -- Think there's a copy & paste mixup in the posting.
   ---------------
   You post says,
   Said Patrick's spokesman: "There was no legal basis for separating these certificates in the first place. It appears like the prior administration was politicizing a routine administrative function."

   Patrick's decision was criticized by Romney's spokesman, Kyle Sullivan: "There was no legal basis for separating these certificates in the first place. It appears like the prior administration was politicizing a routine administrative function."
   --------------
   and the article reads:
   There was no legal basis for separating these certificates in the first place," said Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Patrick. "It appears like the prior administration was politicizing a routine administrative function."

   Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Romney, now a presidential candidate, responded that Romney was correct to refuse to record the marriages because Massachusetts law does not recognize marriage between same-sex couples from outside the state.

   "It was Governor Romney's enforcement of this law that stopped gay marriage from being visited on every other state in the country," Fehrnstrom wrote in an e-mail. "Now that Governor Romney is out of office, we are seeing an erosion of the previously strong defense of traditional marriage coming out of the executive branch."
   -----------

   And you missed the part of the article where Romney's spokesman calls his boss an asshole (see quoted text above).

   Posted by: tjc | Apr 2, 2007 10:31:05 AM

   
   

3. Romney is a shameful character. He doesn't want his religious beliefs to be used for politics yet has no problem messing with the lives of gay people for political gain.

   Posted by: Jack! | Apr 2, 2007 12:45:21 PM

   
   

4. It's still unclear what this does for anyone. What effect will this have?

   Posted by: anon | Apr 2, 2007 1:14:27 PM

   
   

5. I don't know much about Mitt Romney, but I remember seeing bits of his CPAC speech from that report journalist Max Blumental did, and it was frankly scary.

   This man was spewing purposedly incendiary xenophobist proganda without any shame. Saying that it's because of America's strenght they don't speak German, Arabic or Chinese. Ok - what kind of presidential candidate needs to say something like this in 2007? what's the goal of it?

   I think this is the kind of stuff The Advocate needs to be investigating, instead of whether Barack is totally for gay marriage within the 2 years. Cause Mitt Romney is on record in his speech ATTACKING San Francisco, a mere 2 months before the christian Battlecry descended upon the city (yes, the timing weirded me out too) - and it's time to wake up to the danger of people like him.

   Here are parts of his CPAC speech:

   http://granitegrok.com/blog/2007/03/romney_wows_em_at_cpac.html

   I'm happy to learn that after I speak you're going to hear from Ann Coulter. That's a good thing. I think it's important to get the views of moderates.

   [...]

   Let's talk about social conservatism too.
   .
   Massachusetts became center stage for the liberal social agenda – sort of San Francisco east, Nancy Pelosi style.
   .
   Ten months into my term, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said our Constitution requires gay marriage. John Adams, who wrote it, would be surprised.

   [...]

   Not long after that, the Catholic Church was forced to exit their adoption service because they preferred placing kids in homes with a mom and a dad, not two dads or two moms.
   I have stood in the center of the battlefield on every major social issue. I fought to preserve our traditional values and to protect the sanctity of life.

   [...]

   I vetoed bills, and filed new bills. I enforced a law that banned out-of-state same sex couples from coming to Massachusetts to get married. I went to the court again and again, I testified before Congress for the federal marriage amendment, and I championed our successful drive that collected 170,000 signatures for a citizen ballot initiative to protect marriage.

   [...]

   The new generation of challenges we face today includes challenges to our national security as well. Violent Jihadists are intent on replacing moderate Islamic governments with a Caliphate. To do that, they seek the collapse of our economy and our military.

   [...]

   Conservatism is a belief in strength. It is because of America's strength that we don't all speak German and that our kids don't all speak Russian. And it is because of America's strength that our grandchildren will not have to speak Farsi or Arabic or Chinese. America must remain the world's military superpower. That is a first principle of conservatism. To remain the military superpower, we must remain the world's economic superpower as well. You can't be a Tier I military with a Tier II economy – the Soviet Union tried to keep that up for a while, and lost.

   Posted by: Da | Apr 2, 2007 8:56:40 PM

   
   

6. Governor Patrick's recording of the 26 out of state marriages was purely a symbolic gesture on his part as it was clarified to me by his office.

   "A symbolic gesture" to clarify and push the fact that this IS an equal rights issue now as Massachusetts is approaching the Constitutional Convention in which the leges decide if this "concept" goes to the vote of the people is very important. As you say Romney's spokesperson saying that this is about marriage and traditional marriage and marriage protection is the Right's way of taking the subject away from equal rights.

   Thank you Governor Patrick for bringing it back to Equal Rights. It takes leadership like this which we do not have in the Mass Democratic or National Democratic party to light the fire under the butts of the leges who would try to pass the buck to "the people" to vote.

   Posted by: Tom Lang | Apr 2, 2007 8:58:16 PM

   
   

7. Governor Deval Patrick is a great man.

   Posted by: Keith | Apr 3, 2007 3:09:49 AM

   
   

8. ... and a great American.

   Posted by: rob adams | Apr 3, 2007 11:04:35 AM

   
   

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