Thank God we have brave and clear-minded legislators like our own Sen. David Vitter.
While we are wasting our time worrying about high gas prices, the home mortgage crisis, the weakening dollar, an endless occupation in Iraq, a failing one in Afghanistan, global warming and another hurricane season – Vitter knows the real threat:
Gay marriage.
That’s right. Vitter is cosponsoring – along with our sexually ambiguous friend Sen. Larry Craig – a new “Marriage Protection Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution. Similar amendments have failed in Congress before, and this one, with a larger Democratic presence in Congress, will certainly fail as well.
But for Vitter, this is no futile effort. Vitter has repeatedly referred to gay marriage as one of the largest issues this nation faces, and the elimination of it as a critical step in securing – well, securing something.
For those of us who had hoped, after he refused to resign, that Vitter would at least have taken his public humiliation seriously and retreated into the sniveling lame-duck role a man of his scruples should, this is disappointing.
On the contrary, when Vitter returned to the Senate after the prostitution scandal erupted, he was literally met with a standing ovation from fellow Republicans.
Also worthy of noting is the May 1 suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka the D.C. Madam. Juggling an almost certain future in jail and intense negative media attention, a “modern day lynching” to use Palfrey’s own words, drove her to death.
Despite being a partner in crime, Vitter, meanwhile, is still a senator. He is still a self-righteous Christian zealot who has no quarrel with telling others how to run their own lives. If you didn’t know otherwise, you would never guess he broke his own Christian vows and the law.
Palfrey’s death and Vitter’s apparent absolution speak volumes for our society, don’t they?
Well, for Vitter they don’t. You see, in the few instances Vitter has publicly addressed his scandal, he reminds – nay, stresses – that he broke the law “a long time ago,” so everything is cool.
The “long time ago” argument was Vitter’s principle defense when people questioned why former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned and Vitter did not.
If I sound angry about this, well, it’s because I am.
It’s embarrassing enough he continues to serve as a senator, and even more so that he continues to pretend that his credibility is still intact, not to mention wasting the Senate’s time with this silly “Marriage Protection Amendment.”
In his 2004 campaign for the Senate, Vitter’s official statement on “protecting the sanctity of marriage” stressed that “we need a senator who will stand up for Louisiana values, not Massachusetts’s values.”
Fair enough – a standard states’ rights argument.
Gay marriage is banned by Louisiana’s constitution. It has been since 2004. But Vitter feels the need to press Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it everywhere.
But wait a second. Doesn’t that mean Vitter would be pressing Louisiana values on Massachusetts? Would the people of Massachusetts appreciate that?
They certainly wouldn’t.
This type of hypocrisy, though, is typical from Vitter. States’ rights are OK as long as each state bans gay marriage in their constitutions, just like judicial activism is OK as long as judges are banning abortion and handing out assault rifles.
The self-righteous hubris that Vitter revealed during his scandal – that it happened a long time ago, that he was “sorry,” that he allegedly apologized to God and that, finally, he will not resign because he is still the best man to save Louisiana from itself – is the same hubris that motivated him to cosponsor this ridiculous piece of legislation.
And of course, this bill is coming at a time when Congress ought to be paying attention to more dire events.
Now, I know gay marriage is not an issue particularly close to the heart of many Louisianians. It has, after all, been banned in the constitution by the approval of the voters.
The truth is, though, that Vitter’s ineptitude has irreparably damaged his influence in the Senate – and that more importantly means that Louisiana’s influence has diminished. His support for this doomed bill certainly doesn’t help.
But if there is one marriage I would like to see end, it would Vitter’s marriage to his own holiness.
—-Contact Nate Monroe at [email protected]