Danforth has always seemed a decent type. Wonder if he regrets lending his credibility to Clarence Thomas?
WASHINGTON - Former Sen. John Danforth says a conservative push to ban gay marriage through a constitutional amendment is silly, calling it the latest example of how the political influence of evangelical Christians is hurting the GOP.
Danforth, a Missouri Republican and an Episcopal priest, made the comments in a speech Saturday night to the Log Cabin Republicans, which support gay rights. He said history has shown that attempts to regulate human behavior with constitutional amendments are misguided.
“Once before, the Constitution was amended to try to deal with matters of human behavior; that was prohibition. That was such a flop that that was repealed 13 years later,” Danforth said.
Referring to the marriage amendment, he added that perhaps at some point in history there was a constitutional amendment proposed that was “sillier than this one, but I don’t know of one.”
He’s always been fairly virulently anti-choice: Remember the Danforth Amendment to the Civil Rights Act? “To ensure that the bill does not require that persons, or public or private entities receiving Federal funds perform abortions.”
well, yes, there is THAT. But he’s also publicly criticized BushCo for pushing fundie doctrine in government.