Rove Says Same-Sex Marriage Wedge Was Not His Idea

3/10/10-by Paula Brooks
Karl Rove is widely attributed for the electoral successes of former President George W. Bush. Most think Rove was the architect behind the strategy to use same-sex marriage as wedge issue in the 2004 Presidential Election as a bid to get conservative evangelicals to the polls. There were ballot initiatives in nearly a dozen states that year to ban same-sex marriage and Bush also called for a federal constitutional amendment to bar it.

Now Rove is saying in his new book that was not his idea.

Rove, referring to a November 2003, Massachusetts Supreme  Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in that state, writes:

“Gay marriage was an ugly fight we had not asked for but could win if we handled with care. Done right, our response to gay marriage could show it was possible to bring a courteous and caring tone to a divisive issue. The issue also revealed the nuttiness of the Left, which never saw how persistent America’s traditionalism really was. Instead, the Left seemed convinced that Bush and I engineered the issue’s emergence to drive Bush partisans to the polls. But, of course, it was a liberal supreme court that brought the issue to the fore.

In the end, whether a state had a marriage ballot measure didn’t affect Bush’s share of the vote: he increased his portion of the vote between 2000 and 2004 by an average of 2.7 points in the states without referenda and by an average of 2.5 points in the eleven states with defense-of-marriage initiatives on the November ballot, a statistically insignificant difference … But the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision did affect the 2004 election by motivating culturally conservative Democrats and independents who might otherwise have voted Democratic to abandon Kerry over his wobbly views on marriage”

via Reuters.

But even if it was not his idea and while totally missing the fact it was a court decision that put his boss in office in 2000, Rove also says he is not sorry it “just happened that way.”

“Neither Bush nor I regret his stand on gay marriage. The issue was thrust upon us and we were perfectly willing to make our case. To overturn the time-honored definition of marriage is a socially revolutionary act. To do so through the courts and against the will of the people makes the attempt even more radical,” said Rove.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fighting against same-sex marriage just isn’t the ticket to popularity it once was (bilerico.com)