Comments on Burn on Sen. Brownback

Hmmm...I hear just as many boos as I do screams of approval.

You're thanking faux news??

Tis' a cold day in hell...

Im with Matthew. I hear as many cheers as I do boos, if not more.

It's a "divided audience". I wonder who it was -- sounded like kids. College Republicans? Not very representative. New Hampshire is not very representative of America, either.

On the other hand anything that makes Brownback look more like a boob on TV is good, I guess. Though I think he'd make an EXCELLENT Republican nominee -- he's rumored to be one of the bathroom toe-tappers, and it would be AWESOME to see him outed after an arrest in August 2008 right after the Convention. Might kill the Republicans for good.

Divided audience? Sounds good to me. That's the type of "not quite sure about our message" quibbling that bodes poorly for the Repugs in 2008.

non scripted campaigns - God, what a change

you all do member the carefully constructed bogus campaign stops of War in Chief Bush?
all neat and tidy, no surprises, no bad T shirts, all- bogus Rovian operations for the puppet

and cheers to New Hampshire - Live Free and Die, sounds so damn inspiring

Take note pro gay marriage movement, the good lady answered that question SO well-- "you should be able to marry the person you love"

she did not refer to saving tax dollars

LOVE is the word that convinces, not access to better benefits. Again, take note pro gay marriage folks. She was on message and said it perfectly.

Thank you, Angel, for pointing that out to me. I'm so silly.

I forgot to run my life like I was selling margarine to fat people.

I can't believe its not marriage!

I honestly promise that I absolutely love my partner and will never leave him and I don't want marriage for the bling.

Now, please pass me a civil union (margarine) because I still have to convince YOU a while longer that I should have the same consideration of equal protection and due process that Rudy Guiliani and John McCain does every time they find someone more attractive than their current wife (butter) to fuck in the ass.

@6, 7, Yes, unfortunately LOVE is not the message that the marriage equality movement needs to be using on the moveable middle.

And that's the key issue. We're not trying to use messages that appeal to you and other supporters. And we're not trying to convince people like Brownback that they're wrong either. (May as well bang your head against the wall.)

It's the folks who say of course queer love is fine, but why can't you just take domestic partnership or civil unions and leave marriage alone. Marriage is "traditional" or religious or...

The truly ridiculous thing is that we who are denied marriage are forced to try to educate the thousands of (often married) heteros about exactly what marriage is and all of the 425 rights, responsibilities, and benefits that it provides them and not us in the state of Washington.

@8 - They should just call heterosexual and homosexual marriages what they are (or should be) in the eyes of our (supposedly) secular government: a civil union. Leave marriage (and the religious arguments that fuel this entire debate) to the churches.

@6 - LOL ... Live Free OR Die.

You just know that Sam Brownback gets off on some of the sickest, twisted sh*t in the world.

The more he goes on and on about traditional marriage, family values, etc, the more I suspect he's into kinks that might be found in the scariest corners of the Savage Love Inbox.

I liked the statement, "this is the live free or die state and you should be able to marry whom you love"

it brings up liberty/freedom as another argument for gay marriage (not that we don't need them all)....

In a braoder context, aren't we for personal freedom (liberty) as to core personal choicies? This would include reproductive choice, who you marry, decisions concerning your body, and freedom of conscience/spirituality/relgious beliefs.

You hear Democrats or pro-gay-rigts progressives listing these things separetely but you rarely hear it said that WE are for personal freedom and liberty and denial of these things by conservatives means THEY are denying liberty and freedom.

Why let conservatives steal liberty and its connection to fundamnetal American values? We should own this turf, this language and this brand or shelfspace or preexisting narrative, which already exists in the minds of all Americans.

Cleve is right. Americans have core values of Truth, Justice, and the American Middle Class way of life.

The Republicants fail on all those measures - they hate our freedoms.

It's time to rebrand the term "family values" to mean healthcare, education, equal rights, and justice.

Democrats need to stop letting the GOP frame the damn debate.

But yay New Hampshire! New Hampshire is the only state in the union that refuses a seatbelt law and thus loses out on millions of federal dollars. Most Republicans in NH are of the leave-me-alone variety. What they don't realize is that while their Republican politicians may be of that same caliber, they vote with the hardcore right wing please-insert-your-religion-into-law Republicans. I think with the right framing of the debate we could bring New Hampshire to the Democratic side. We just need to convince people that Democrats don't give all your money to lazy immigrants (the opinion amongst the NH and MA Republicans I know) and the GOP gives money to rich people. It can be done.

In case anyone's interested, William Bradford, primary author of the Mayflower compact(1620) and no religious slouch, felt marriage "civill thing upon which
many questions aboute inheritences doe depende" and not a religious one (because
"no wher in the gospell to be layed on the ministers as part of their office").

See Bradford's History of Plymoth Plantation, 1606-1646 pages 116-117.
Available at books.google.com