Gay Marriage Vote Postmortem

April 9, 2009

First off, congrats to Vermont for successfully overriding Governor Jim Douglas’s veto of the gay marriage bill. It’s now law – officially kicking in on September 1st.

While the clear “winners” in this victory are the gay and lesbian couples who can now get married and – hopefully – aim to do better than the 50% failure rate of man/woman marriages, there were also a number of political winners.

Beth Robinson, for example, the head of VT Freedom to Marry Coalition, was simply superb. She kept her coalition on message and, most impressively, rose above the angry mob of gay marriage opponents who all but taunted them throughout the public hearings. How, for example, they could remain cool, calm and collected while their opponents compared gay love to man/horse love or man/boy love or father/daughter love is beyond me. But they did. And they deserve credit for it.

The other political winner is first-year House Speaker Shap Smith, my representative by the way. Smith and Senate President Peter Shumlin did a masterful job of orchestrating the timing and the logistics of this bill. But Smith’s job was a whole lot more difficult than Shumlin’s since the Vermont Senate is a whole lot more liberal and smaller (read: manageable) than the House.

As you’ll recall, Shumlin and the last House Speaker, Gaye Symington, tried to get bold with their “super-majorities” in the last session on issues like global warming and taxing the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant but Symington failed to deliver the House. The reason she failed became clear when she decided to challenge Governor Douglas for his job: Symington’s a terrible communicator and leader.

Smith, on the other hand, is at least able to both articulate a thought and also be persuasive enough to bring along enough votes to win the day. That’s refreshing. And it’s also exactly what’s needed in this rare time when the Democrats have veto-proof majorities in the legislature.

Now let’s get to the losers. The person put first on every such list so far has been Governor Douglas. And I agree, but for different reasons. The conventional wisdom says that Douglas lost because his veto was overridden. True enough. But, for me, Douglas is a real loser on this issue for doing what he always does with tough issues: Play politics while pretending not to. It’s about as transparent as transparent can get – but it doesn’t stop the Vermont’s lapdog media from regurgitating his dopey proclamations (i.e. “gay marriage is a distraction).

I think Douglas got exactly what he wanted out of this issue. He got it off the legislative radar in a non-election year by having his veto overridden and he got to throw a bone to his right-wing Vermont base and growing national Republican base by issuing his veto. Mission accomplished, indeed.

But he’s still obviously the biggest loser for playing the highest-stakes game of politics with an issue that is truly about civil rights, civil compassion and simply providing some joy in a time of great civil strife.

Remember, Governor Douglas’ primary opposition to the gay marriage bill was based on the fact that it was “a distraction” to the more pressing matters that were facing Vermont, particularly the economy. But let’s see if he speaks up to scold the right-wing gay-bashers who are now frothing at the bit over their calls for “revenge,” “constitutional amendments,” and promises to “repeal and revolt” over the legislature’s actions.

Speaking of the gay-bashers, let’s delve deeper into the loser list. Next up, Steve Cable of Rutland, the self-anointed leader of the “oh-my-god-we’ll-die-if-gay’s-are-legitimized” crowd. Here’s how Cable described the mood of his shrinking number of followers to the Vermont Press Bureau after finding out – once again – that they were losers:

“[They’re] blood shooting out of their eyes mad.”

Wow. That’s dramatic. But the real question is: Will Cable continue to quote the Bible in defeat as he did during the entire time during the battle? I guess not:

“This isn’t about moving on,” Cable said. “This is about getting even.”

I guess Cable’s Bible doesn’t include that whole “turn the other cheek” reference.

Speaking of the Bible, the other major loser in this fight was the “Rev.” Craig Benson, another Rutland man who apparently loves to spew hate in the name of the Bible. Please, can someone find the passage in the Bible that glorifies hate, paranoia, false-judgment, and mean-spirited revenge? Because the “Rev.” Benson can’t.

Instead, the “Rev.” Benson joins his fire-breathing hate-monger, Steve Cable, in declaring a massive miscarriage of justice by those seeking love and justice. Go figure. Specifically, Benson mashed his sour grapes with this nonsense:

“Our side was outspent 20-1…and, given that, we were lucky the vote was so close.”

Proof on the spending? None. And for those of us who were “lucky” enough to receive all those calls from the out of state gay-bashers, I’d seriously question his spending accusation.

But what’s easy to dispute is Benson’s laughable claim that the votes were “close.” Since when did votes of 23-5 in the Senate and 100-49 in the House get considered to be “close”? Those votes are what the sports world would call “blow-outs.” And they were.

We can only hope that in the election season of 2010 Jim Douglas will be forced to join Cable and Benson in their caves of irrelevance. There may not be term limits in Vermont but there are limits on how long bigots can swim against the stream of justice – just ask all those Republicans in the 1950’s and ‘60’s who opposed giving civil rights to African-Americans. Yes, indeed, Jim Douglas is our George Wallace.

But let’s end on the positive note: Vermont rose to the occasion and, like its stand against slavery in the 18th Century, Vermont will be forever recognized for its courageous stand. Congrats.

Posted by M. Colby | Filed Under blog, vt media, vt politics

Comments

2 Responses to “Gay Marriage Vote Postmortem”

Peter Buknatski on April 12th, 2009 1:10 pm

Headline: “Vermont Strokes Itself”

The State of Vermont has embraced Gay Marriage, and seemingly embraced itself in the bargain. Political activists in Vermont are so enthralled with their victory that some have now proposed legislation to adopt activist Peter Buknatski’s 2000 proposal to recognize and make legal “…a person and the hand that person uses, either right or left, or both, as ‘life partners’ and entitled to the same partnership rights that any other married couple in Vermont enjoy…or whatever…”

Buknatski was unsuccessful in his efforts in 2000 when he formed what he called The Right Hand Coalition; many left-handed Vermonters objected that his coalition was exclusionary, politically incredible, lacking in specifics, and just plain tasteless and gross. Buknatski was quick to amend the name of his Coalition to The Right Hand/Left Hand/Both Hands Coalition, but by then Governor Howard Dean had already signed Vermont’s Civil Union bill into law and nobody was listening to or talking to Buknatski anymore.

But now with the passage of a Gay Marriage law in Vermont, Buknatski feels the time is right to demand equal rights for single people and the hand (or hands) they use in a sexual/emotional relationship, specifically for insurance coverage, tax deductions, and ‘group rates’ for vacations, concerts and public events where taxpayer funded bathroom facilities are provided.

“Listen, ” said Buknatski, echoing Ross Perot, “it’s simple, you dummies. In the end, whatever hand you use is probably the same one you’ve used since puberty and, therefore you’ve established a partnership and relationship that no government, religion, special interest group, or anyone else’s hand should be allowed to tear asunder, and I mean in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, as long as you and your hand or hands shall live!”

Buknatski said he is considering a new name for his coalition: “Yeah, something along the lines of Keep Your Hands To Yourself. I’m still working on it,” he huffed.

For more on this story see Buknatski’s new blog site: http://www.whackjobVermont.cum.

-30-
Peter Buknatski on April 15th, 2009 1:23 pm

Headline: “Champ In 2010?”

Champ, Vermont’s State Monster, announced today he will run for Governor in 2010. His announcement came on the heels of Douglas’ plan to eliminate the job position of State Monster or consolidate it with a new State Monster position built around Vt. Yankee.

“Recently Gov. Douglas has gone around the bend on state job cuts,” Champ explained. “But Hell, I’m your f_____’ State Monster. Enough is enough! So I will begin my campaign now for Governor of Vermont by saying this: If elected I will see to it that every Vermonter’s job is secure. Those who threaten Vermonters’ jobs, I will eat. Executive privilege, I believe it’s called.”

When asked about other candidates in the race to unseat Douglas next year, Champ replied: “There will be no other candidates. I will eat them all at the debates. This is between me and Shithead.”

And if Vermonters reject Champ at the polls? “Remember Godzilla!” Champ stated. “See you on the lake. And bring your kiddies.”