g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com January 13, 2012 01:50:00 PM ET
N.J. Gov Christie Warming to Marriage Equality?
By Neal Broverman
New Jersey's high-profile Republican governor Chris Christie is playing coy
about his feelings on same-sex marriage, which Democratic lawmakers in the
state are trying to enact.
State legislators are making marriage equality a major priority in the
upcoming session. Formerly an opponent of gay marriage, senate president
Stephen Sweeney now supports it and thinks the legislature has the votes to
not only pass a marriage bill, but also override a possible veto from
Christie.
But it's not clear whether Christie will definitely quash such legislation.
In the past, he voiced support for keeping New Jersey's civil unions law and
holding off on marriage. Now, he's singing a slightly different tune.
“They have a right to set their agenda, I’ll set mine, we’ll see who gets
there first,” Christie said on Thursday, according to NJ.com. “When
forced to make a decision, if forced to make a decision on it, I’ll make a
decision.” | D**S
发帖数: 24887 | 2 克里斯蒂比较温和,有这种想法应该也不算太离奇.另外,新州也是相对比较liberal的州
. | g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 3 不幸的是，我认为第二篇文章更有可能是现实，不太相信CRISTIE会变，也没有那么容易搞到2/3的
票吧？不看好NJ。
【在 D**S 的大作中提到】
: 克里斯蒂比较温和,有这种想法应该也不算太离奇.另外,新州也是相对比较liberal的州
: .
| g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 4 http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/136994258_Sweeney_s_ev
Sweeney's evolution on gay marriage may be futile
MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2012 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY JANUARY 10, 2012, 9:01
AM
By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST
PAGES: 1 2 3 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE | PRINT | E-MAIL
Two years ago, Democrat Steve Sweeney was just a disappointing, knuckle-
dragging Neanderthal on gay rights.
Now, the state's most vocal gay rights advocate readily declared the über-
macho Senate president a candidate for a Nobel Prize.
"He's evolved, just like the rest of the world has evolved," said the
hyperbolic Steven Goldstein, leader of the Garden State Equality from
Teaneck at a State House news conference Monday, a beaming Sweeney at his
side.
"His commitment to this issue is passionate, sincere. And when we pass this
legislation, he'll go down as one of the great civil rights leaders of our
time."
I wouldn't rush out and commission a bronze bust just yet.
The oft-dreamed-of goal of making New Jersey the seventh state to recognize
same-sex marriage remains a fantasy as long as the conservative Republican
Governor Christie remains in Trenton. Despite Sweeney's conversion into a
gay marriage warrior, advocates face a tougher Trenton terrain to climb this
time.
Two years ago, the gay rights activists and progressives had, at least on
paper, a rare planets-in-alignment moment for the cause. Democrats
controlled both houses of the Legislature, and a supportive Democratic
governor, Jon Corzine, closing out his troubled career in politics. But the
bill died in the Senate, largely because an indifferent Sweeney slunk away
from the job of rallying his caucus, slunk away from even voting for the
bill, and slunk away from history.
It's an episode he now regrets. "I made a terrible mistake, a political
calculation. And I didn't look at the issue for what it was," Sweeney said
Monday. "It's about civil rights."
Democrats still control the Legislature this time around and Sweeney the
Convert has firmly committed himself to the cause. But Corzine was replaced
by Christie, who sits down the hall like an unbudgeable Buddha, opposed to
gay marriage.
"I believe marriage is an institution between one man and one woman,"
Christie told CNN's Piers Morgan last June. "I couldn't change my mind on
that, but I am in favor of making sure that homosexual couples have the same
type of legal rights that heterosexual couples have." | g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 5 Christie is also being touted as a future presidential nominee of a party
dominated by social conservatives who fear gay marriage will destroy the
nation's moral foundations, even Western civilization itself. It's a party
that gives serious consideration to adulterer and thrice-married Newt
Gingrich, but it has no tolerance for a candidate who supports a tolerant
pro-gay marriage law. Given that reality, why would anyone think Christie, a
possible 2016 candidate for president, will "evolve" like Sweeney?
Sweeney suggested that there is a kind of silent majority of moderate
Republicans around the country who tolerate a pro-gay marriage candidate. He
noted how New York's gay marriage law first squeaked through a Republican-
controlled Senate last year before Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it into law.
"The governor is a decent person and I think we could educate him," Sweeney
said.
But Sweeney omitted important details about the New York success. It was
Cuomo, a Democrat, who rounded up deep-pocketed Republican donors and got
them to agree to persuade nervous fence-sitting Republican lawmakers to vote
for the gay marriage bill. They did this by agreeing to bankroll their next
election race if an opponent attacked them for their vote. Cuomo was a
governor leading the crusade, not one standing in its path.
Political objectives
Two years ago, the bill received only 14 votes, seven shy of passage.
Sweeney is now confident that he can get the minimum of 21, including some
Republicans. But the real number is 27, the number needed to override a
Christie veto. That would require a minimum of three Republican votes, and
possibly more because some of Democrats who voted against it last time will
probably oppose it again.
And even if Sweeney Democrats do round up the 27, an override is hardly a
slam dunk. Witness last year, when a veto-proof majority voted to restore
Christie's $7.5 million cuts for family planning clinics. But many
Republican senators refused to buck Christie by overriding his veto.
So what, exactly, is the strategy this time?
Patrick Murray, the Monmouth University political analyst, believes the new
bill has more to do with the Democrats' political objectives for the 2013
campaign. Cornering Christie into a veto will allow Democrats to accuse him
of being "more concerned with his national political future rather than his
job here in New Jersey," where polls show support for gay marriage. But will
it hurt him politically? Murray doubts it — voters tend to judge governors
on how well they addressed pocketbook issues, like property taxes and job
creation, not social issues.
Others are banking on a more tidal shift in the national mood. Maybe the Tea
Party fever consuming the national GOP will finally break. Maybe the party
will collapse under the weight of right-wing extremism this fall and rebuild
itself under the tolerant big tent. Maybe it won't punish a Republican
Northeastern governor who changed his mind and voted for gay marriage.
Christie, sensing the shift, might not sign the bill, but won't veto it,
either. That would allow the bill to become law without his signature.
"Well, it took a few years, but Steve Sweeney and I are finally on the same
team," Goldstein gushed.
The real teammate, the one that really counts, wasn't in the room. He hasn't
evolved. |
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