PushBack Politics - Live Political Blog
Jon Stewart Tears Apart GOP Autopsy Report For Changing Tone But Not Policy: ‘Good Luck In 2020′
Jon Stewart tonight focused on a story missed during his hiatus last week: the Republican party’s autopsy report. Stewart was less than impressed, joking, “It is a time of reflection and soul-searching for the GOP, and we’ll let you know if they find one!” Stewart mocked the very name “autopsy,” which basically likens the GOP to a “bloated corpse.” He said that the idea of softening tone instead of policy amounts to just tell gay people they are living in sin… with a smile on your face. Stewart likened the autopsy’s recommendation of creating pilot programs for conservatives in urban neighborhoods to a Westen explorer living amongst natives. Their attempts to engage minority voters and re-tool their message for those markets made the GOP comparable, in Stewart’s eyes, to Kool cigarettes, because both organizations have “seemed indifferent to the overall health of minorities.” Of course, before the autopsy the conservative movement was riding high after CPAC, to which Stewart gave a rather dirty acronym. And if the problem with the GOP is the way they say things and not what they’re saying, CPAC was not a prime example of that. Stewart highlighted Donald Trump going on a random immigration tirade, [...]
Supreme Court Conservatives Target Obama On Marriage Law
Supreme Court Conservatives Target Obama On Marriage Law Midway into a second day of tackling the gay marriage issue, conservatives on the Supreme Court said on Wednesday they were troubled by President Barack Obama’s decision in 2011 not to defend in court a ban Congress had approved. The decision by Obama to abandon the legal defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) called into question his willingness to defend other laws passed by Congress and challenged in court, several conservative justices said. “It’s very troubling,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy. While the criticisms may not affect how the justices eventually rule on whether the 1996 law violates U.S. equal protection rights, it showed frustration with how Obama has walked a difficult political line on gay marriage. Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, said in February 2011 they would cease defending the law because they believed it to be invalid under the Constitution. In the place of the Justice Department, Republican lawmakers have stepped in to argue for the law. Source: chicagotribune.com (Reuters) Read more
‘Gay-mageddon’: Colbert Warns Gay Marriage Will Lead America To Be ‘Lost In A Sea Of Hedonism’
“Gay-mageddon” is upon us, Stephen Colbert informed on Tuesday night. “The gay swarm has descended on the Supreme Court.” In light of the court taking on the Prop 8 and Defense of Marriage Act cases, Colbert tackled the issue from a cultural angle — as well as the impeccable logic of one particular politician. “Folks, if we lose either of these two cases,” Colbert warned, America will be “lost in a sea of hedonism.” Which isn’t to say it hasn’t already begun, he argued, pointing to the polling showing significant support for gay marriage. “What’s the hurry, gays?” he asked. The “terrifying decay of public morals” (when the founders wrote the constitution “homosexuals weren’t even invented yet”) led Colbert to one man who simply isn’t falling for it. In “The Word’s” segment on “narcicitizenship,” we got a closer look at Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) who, asked about gay marriage, offered the gem of a response, “I’m not gay, so I’m not going to marry one.” By Chambliss’ own logic, Colbert concluded, “No marriage is legitimate except marriage to Saxby Chambliss.” Good news, though, that marriage is “safe” given that Chambliss doesn’t turn gay. That, however, isn’t entirely implausible since he [...]
The Gang Of Four Liberal Justices And Maverick Kennedy Team Up Against DOMA (AUDIO)
The U.S. Supreme Court heard two hours of arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) today and the overwhelming impression is that the law is doomed. The main concern was voiced by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who questioned whether the federal government has the right to regulate marriage. Such legislation usually falls within the realm of state governments, but DOMA would invalidate same-sex marriages in the states where voters have already declared them legal. The question is whether the government has the power to deny recognition of marriages that are legal in the states where they occurred? For Justice Kennedy, the basic question is “whether or not the federal government under our federalism scheme has the authority to regulate marriage.” He also expressed concern over the injury to couples who are already married. Other justices displayed a more vigorous stance. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that DOMA created “two types of marriage”—the straight version and the “skim milk” version. According to the Huffington Post, Justice Elena Kagan went further. Reading from the House of Representatives’ Report, she cited that the intent of Congress was to reflect a “collective moral judgment and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality.” Kagan suggested [...]
Morning Joe Clashes Over Supreme Court ‘Squirming’ On Marriage: Not About Being On Right Side Of History
Morning Joe followed up on Proposition 8′s day in the Supreme Court this morning, discussing the oral arguments and debating the court’s approach. While the public opinion on the issue of gay marriage has clearly shifted, the panel agreed, the Supreme Court seemed hesitant to even tackle it. For some of the justices, Michael Steele asserted, this is not about being on the right or wrong side of history — it’s simply about the Constitution. Fundamentally conservative, the Supreme Court tends to be behind social trends, TIME‘s Rana Foroohar argued — but support for this issue isn’t new, and it’s only building. That led to a larger discussion about the politics of the issue, including lawmakers who’ve recently changed their minds about it, with Mike Barnicle noting that the court isn’t “immune” to seeing the political side. “The train has left the station,” John Heilemann agreed. “This court very much wants to punt this bad boy back to the states as fast as they can get it there,” Steele argued. “State legislatures are where the action is and the game is.” On that note, Barnicle, noting the powerful “flow of history,” pointed to a Maureen Dowd op-ed that asserted that, [...]
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