{"id":7534,"date":"2006-05-29T09:10:10","date_gmt":"2006-05-29T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7534"},"modified":"2006-05-29T09:10:10","modified_gmt":"2006-05-29T13:10:10","slug":"frist-tries-and-fails-to-defend-culture-war-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/frist-tries-and-fails-to-defend-culture-war-amendments\/","title":{"rendered":"Frist tries — and fails — to defend culture-war amendments"},"content":{"rendered":"

As early as next week, the Senate will hold votes on [tag]constitutional amendment[\/tag]s to ban [tag]flag[\/tag] “[tag]desecration[\/tag]” and [tag]gay marriage[\/tag]. On [tag]Fox News[\/tag] yesterday, [tag]Bill Frist[\/tag] was asked whether these are “the most important issues the Senate can be addressing in June of 2006?” It’s not a bad question — too bad Frist didn’t have a good answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to [tag]Arlington Cemetery[\/tag] tomorrow, and I’m going to see that American flag waving on every single grave over there,” Frist said the day before Memorial Day ceremonies at the military cemetery.<\/p>\n

“And when you look at that flag and then you tell me that right now people in this country are saying it’s OK to desecrate that flag and to burn it and to not pay respect to it is that important to our values as a people when we’ve got 130,000 people fighting for our freedom and liberty today? That is important.”<\/p>\n

Frist defended a constitutional ban on gay marriage because “that union between a man and a woman is the cornerstone of our society. It is under attack today.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s funny, in a way, that every time Frist speaks on almost any issue, I think, “This guy’s the [tag]Senate Majority Leader[\/tag]? And thinks he should be [tag]president<\/em>[\/tag]?”<\/p>\n

On the flag, I’m glad Frist is going to Arlington Cemetery today; maybe while he’s there he can take a moment to reflect on the freedoms for which those men and women sacrificed their lives. It wasn’t for a symbolic piece of cloth, it was for what that cloth represented. As far as Frist is concerned, the United States should join Cuba, China, and Iran as the only countries<\/a> on earth to ban flag desecration. For him to connect this vote to American “values” during a time of war is painfully stupid.<\/p>\n

And on marriage, if Frist could follow up that sentence by explaining in any way how marriage is “under attack today,” I’m all ears.<\/p>\n

Frist said these votes are “important to the heart and soul of the American people.” What he meant was that the votes are important to a small segment of the GOP’s far-right base to which Frist is desperate to [tag]pander[\/tag].<\/p>\n

For what it’s worth, neither amendment has the votes to pass. After next week, marriage will still be a venerated institution, the flag will still be our national symbol, and Frist will still be a ridiculous hack. The more things change….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As early as next week, the Senate will hold votes on [tag]constitutional amendment[\/tag]s to ban [tag]flag[\/tag] “[tag]desecration[\/tag]” and [tag]gay marriage[\/tag]. On [tag]Fox News[\/tag] yesterday, [tag]Bill Frist[\/tag] was asked whether these are “the most important issues the Senate can be addressing in June of 2006?” It’s not a bad question — too bad Frist didn’t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}