Issues du Jour

Republicans plan controversial votes on gay marriage, flag burning

By James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Posted on Fri, Jun. 02, 2006

WASHINGTON - When President Bush beat John Kerry in 2004, Republicans said a ballot initiative in Ohio to ban gay marriage sealed the election, drawing legions of conservatives to the polls.

Bush and Republican senators now will seek another dose of conservative magic to embolden their party's base. Call it nostalgia - or election-year jitters.

In Saturday's radio address, Bush will urge support for a national ban on gay marriage. A meeting Monday at the White House with opponents of gay marriage will follow, then a full-blown debate and vote in the Senate on a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to the union of a man and a woman.

Next, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., wants votes on two perennial conservative causes: repealing the estate tax and giving Congress the constitutional authority to ban flag burning.

None of the measures is expected to pass, though the estate tax debate could yield a compromise that applies the tax only to the largest inheritances.

The detour into socially conservative causes comes as Congress is locked in a stalemate over immigration policy, paralyzed over ethics legislation and flummoxed by the Iraq war.

Despite the futility of the gay-marriage and flag-burning votes, some Republican strategists said they were just the jolt that conservative voters - angry over illegal immigration, profligate spending and congressional scandal - needed to overcome their growing antipathy toward the party.

"Every time you have that conversation it reminds (voters) of what team they're on," said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a prominent voice in conservative circles.

Some conservatives, such as political direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie, are skeptical about Republican motives. The upcoming votes, he said, aren't enough to compensate for what he considers a pattern of wayward behavior.

"No conservative is going to take this as a change of heart or as a newfound belief in conservative principles," he said.

Other Republican operatives say the strategy is a waste of time when most Republican voters are angry or divided over the Iraq war, high gas prices and immigration.

"Those are the issues that are dominating people's dinner-table talk," said Scott Reed, who managed Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. Reed dismissed Frist's plan, saying: "If you're a gay who likes to burn flags, it's going to be a long year."

I'm straight and I've never burned a flag in my life. It's still going to be a long year.