WHO'S RUNNING OUR COUNTRY?

Obviously, the most newsworthy events are happening in Iraq right now. The fact that they're voting is a big deal, no matter which political party you support.

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But there's another, far more important event taking place in Washington D.C. at the moment. It has to do with who's running this country of ours. Now, you won't find this on CNN or even in the Washington Post or Boston Globe. But, if correct, start preparing yourself for some major league hard ball to be played not by the new Washington Nationals, but by the Bush administration and his loyal supporters, the fundamentalist Christian right.

The News Telegraph, an English source, broke the news today that "Conservative Christian leaders who played a key role in securing President George W Bush's re-election have given the White House an ultimatum over outlawing same-sex marriages." The New York Blade called it a "threat."

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Wowza!! It takes real stones to issue an ultimatum to or threaten the president of the United States! You know, I actually thought that Bush was running the country. It seems I might be wrong. It seems that unelected people can force our president to do whatever they want, seperation of church and state be dammned. Of course, the letter wasn't sent to Bush, it was sent to Rove, which speaks volumns in itself.

I could be the most conservative Republican on record, and I'd still be cheesed off by that statement. Issue the president an ultimatum? That takes some getting used to.

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It seems the Arlington Group, a bunch of powerful right wing religious bigots that include our favorite whackos, James Dobson and his Focus on the Family people, Don Wildman of the American Family Association, and the Rev. Jerry Falwell in their ranks, gagged up a hairball when Bush said, "Senators have made it clear that so long as DOMA is deemed constitutional, nothing will happen. I'd take their admonition seriously."

Dobson is quoted as responding, "If Republicans do what they've done in the past, which is say, 'Thanks so much for putting us in power: now we don't want to talk to you any more', they will pay a serious price."

Dem's fightin' words my friend. What is the Arlington Group up to? "We couldn't help but notice the contrast between how the President is approaching the difficult issue of social security privatisation, where the public is deeply divided, and the marriage issue, where public opinion is overwhelmingly on his side," the leaked letter said. "Is he prepared to spend significant political capital on privatisation but reluctant to devote the same energy to preserving traditional marriage? If so, it would create outrage with countless voters who stood with him just a few weeks ago, including an unprecedented number of African-Americans, Latinos and Catholics who broke with tradition and supported the President solely because of this issue."

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Gary Bauer, the president of the conservative group American Values, told The Sunday Telegraph last week: "Many of us did a great deal to help with President Bush's re-election. One of the reasons we could motivate so many people was because of his strong stance on same-sex marriage. If the White House wants us to rally our troops like they need for social security reform, a subject on which our people are very divided, that is going to be very difficult if the President does not come out strongly in favour of the constitutional amendment."

According to the New York Times, the letter chastised the president for taking, "a defeatist attitude on an issue that is at the top of our agenda” and expressed concern that Bush stated in an interview shortly before the election that he “appeared to endorse civil unions” for same-sex couples.

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The new constitutional amendment being proposed will have none of that. The Bolder Daily Camera reports, "The amendments would not simply ban gay marriage. They also would prohibit conferring the 'legal incidents thereof' on 'any union other than the union of a man and woman.' In other words, gay people not only could not 'marry' — which polls suggest a majority of Americans support — but they could not enter intolegal arrangements conferring rights of inheritance, hospital visitation, adoption, and many others available to most Americans. President Bush doesn't support that, and neither does a majority of Americans, polls show."

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So what effect will the threat to withhold support for Bush's plan to privatize Social Security have on the White House? One wonders. The deeper you get into the Right Wing Christian effort to implement their bigotry into the Constitution of this country, the sicker people get of their arguments. Many Repubo supporters are beginning to realize just how much control the Right Wing religious fanatics have over our country. Fortunately, the leaders of these fanatics don't realize the compromises and wheeling and dealing that is a necessary part of working with Congress. They also fail to realize the diversity of the American population. Because they take all or nothing at all stances with their primary issues like abortion and marriage, they will lose their fight until they become so hateful and critical that no one will stand with them.

This is what happens when denying rights to citizens instead of protecting them is seen as a viable election strategy. Abe Lincoln is rolling in his grave.