February 24, 2012 in News

Gingrich says Wash. doing gay marriage right

OLYMPIA – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he thinks allowing same-sex couples to marry is wrong, but the path Washington is taking to change its law is right.

Voters, rather than the courts, should have a chance to decide the issue, Gingrich said Friday. The Legislature passed, and Gov. Chris Gregoire signed, a bill to allow same-sex marriage but opponents have filed a referendum that would delay the law and block it if they gather enough signatures by June 6.

“I don’t agree with it. If I were voting, I’d vote no,” Gingrich said during a break in meetings with Republican legislators Friday morning. “But at least they’re doing it the right way.”

During a later news conference, the Republican presidential candidate said he’s changed his mind on medical marijuana and no longer supports efforts to have the federal government reclassify the drug so it could be prescribed for certain conditions. He did support such reclassification in the 1980s, but “I was convinced by parents who didn’t want any suggestion made to their children that drugs were appropriate.”

States don’t have the right to pass medical marijuana laws and then allow some sort of distribution system to be set up, he added. “I think the federal government has been very clear… that federal law trumps state law.”

Gingrich is in Washington trying to generate support for the March 3 precinct caucuses, which will feature a straw poll as well as start the process to select delegates for the Republican National Convention. He wouldn’t predict how he would do next Saturday, except that he planned to get “our share of the votes.”

“Enough to get delegates. Enough so people see I’m genuinely competitive,” he said, adding he’s trying to accomplish that by making the case he’s the best opponent to President Barack Obama based on his economic policies, energy policies and experience making major changes in Washington, D.C.

He also hopes to do well enough to get some momentum for the following Tuesday, when 10 states including Idaho have caucuses or primaries.

Gingrich met with Republicans in the state House of Representatives and state Senate, and posed for photos with supporters and excited pages. He later made a stop at one of the Capitol Campus press buildings, known as the White House. Before he answered media questions, though, he wanted to ask one of his own. Why was it called the White House? Unlike the building in Washington, D.C., to which he aspires, it’s not named for the color it’s painted. It’s named for longtime Associated Press reporter John White.

Gingrich also had high praise for the location of his Spokane rally, the Bing Crosby Theater: “It’s a great venue.”

23 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

swensel on February 24 at 10:58 p.m.
I’m sorry, Mr. Gingrich, but voters should not get the say on any civil rights issue. The majority should never be given the opportunity to oppress the minority. That is the way our US Constitution is written. That is the intent of our US Constitution - the one you swore to uphold when you were Speaker of the House and the one you would swear to uphold as President of the United States. The US Constitution guarantees equal treatment for all and we should get equal treatment. Until same sex marriage is the law of the land, we are not getting equal treatment; gays and lesbians will continue to be treated as second-class citizens, denied the basic _civil_ right of marriage that all heterosexuals can choose to enjoy. I don’t care if a church ever recognizes my marriage as legitimate as long as my government does.
greenlibertarian2nd on February 24 at 11:16 p.m.
Getrich is completely cracked in the head. He will literally say anything. He has no core principles. A serial adulterer. And yet the truly stupid think he’s a family values candidate.
But for one old Jewish billionaire casino owner, Getrich would have crawled back under his rock.
RedCedar on February 24 at 11:41 p.m.
Unsurprisingly, he was all over the place with his positions. As near as I can tell, there’s only one thing I’m sure he believes in, and that’s that he wants to be president. How any serious conservative can defend federal marijuana prohibition is beyond me. It shouldn’t even fall under the interstate commerce clause unless it’s crossing state lines for money. There is nothing that he can read into the Constitution that give the feds the power to ban the growing of a plant on one’s own property for one’s own use without any money involved. Of course that’s just one of his positions. Right now, both Gingrich and Romney seem to be focusing on trying to out-pander Santorum for the religious vote.
gl2, are you sure you want to play the Jewish card here? I’d hate to think you’d been smoking dope with WooWoo.
Shadedmuse on February 25 at 12:28 a.m.
The republican-insane clown posee of tea-bagger freak show marches on as Obama is singing 4 more years baby.
polistra on February 25 at 4:33 a.m.
Newt is out of touch with reality. He hasn’t been keeping track of what ACTUALLY HAPPENS when voters mistakenly believe they can express an opinion. The Politburo (called “federal courts” for arcane historical reasons) always snatch the decision away from the cute little voters.
If we still had proper federal courts, functioning the way they were supposed to function, then his position would make sense. As it is, he’s praising a mere decorative frill while missing the real problem entirely.
JBlim on February 25 at 6:10 a.m.
We must be doing something wrong.
Scoutster on February 25 at 6:17 a.m.
thanks, Newt…we needed your moral vindication.
IHike4Fun on February 25 at 6:53 a.m.
Ummm… we got to vote on this?
Local on February 25 at 7:06 a.m.
“thanks, Newt…we needed your moral vindication.”
You mean like Libertatrians that support
Prostitution
Pornography
Legalization of all drugs
Abortion
jessiepn on February 25 at 7:46 a.m.
Swensel, thank you for your comments on same-sex marriage being a civil rights issue and not suitable for being put to a vote. Civil rights for blacks and for women, and even the right of blacks and whites to marry legally, came about in this country not by a vote of the people (who would likely in all those cases have voted against) but by court decisions. It really puzzles me how all these people who hold the Constitution so sacred can’t figure this out.
woodj64 on February 25 at 7:55 a.m.
Perhaps if we lower the moral bar across the nation, your past won’t be subject to so much scrutiny, Mr. Gingrich.
WooWoo on February 25 at 9:42 a.m.
We call a dog a dog and a cat a cat because dogs aren’t cats and cats aren’t dogs. But the same laws protecting them are legislated.
We call a car a car and a truck a truck because cars aren’t trucks and trucks aren’t cars. But they both follow the same rules on the highway.
Gays are missing their moment to generously compromise. They should graciously drop the rude insistence on having their unions described as marriages. Marriage is the “word” used to describe the union between a man and a woman.
The legislated laws protecting the civil union between man and man or woman and woman are the same as for those unions between men and women.
The union between a man and a woman is called a marriage.
The union between a man and a man or a woman and a woman can be called anything they choose to call it except marriage.
Gayriage?
I don’t call a dog a cat. I won’t call a union between two men or two women a marriage.
Gays should drop the bull.
misjustice on February 25 at 9:54 a.m.
Oh, a serial adulterer and serial husband commenting on marriage equality; that’s RICH!
; )
ericdx on February 25 at 10:01 a.m.
WooHoo,
Who are you fooling. Obviously you are getting your drugs from your welfare payments.
“The holocaust was a hoax.” Really? Been Anti-semetic and stupid much?
“Gays should drop the bull”
Bigotted pr!cks like you are thebiggest problem in this country.
And to correct some of the Lib terds out there, not all republicans are opposed to gay marriage, just the loudest, most obnoxious ones. I admit to being a republican, and dispise our president, but right now the republicans have the clown show going, so we are going to be saddled with 4 more years of the idiot in chief on the throne, mostly because ther republicans would just put a different idiot on the throne, but I do support gay marriage, and I do support taxing the hell out of the rich.
Newt is wonrg, and Newt needs to just go crawl back under the rock that newts hide under. You would think that people would be smart enough to not vote for a man whoisnamed after a lizard, because the acts just like one, slithering out to cause trouble, and then slithering back under the rocks.
terryalan on February 25 at 10:13 a.m.
woowoo either needs to take (or increase) anti-psychotics or is one of the worst trolls I have read lately.
swensel, thank you for the initial post. Absolutely perfect.
Got news for the religious types….I don’t WANT your god or church involved in my personal life. KEEP it. I just want the legals the same as anybody else. Judge me all you want, look upon my life with horror if that is where your head is. I DO NOT CARE.
Equality for all.
Local on February 25 at 11:14 a.m.
terryalan,
WE DO NOT CARE what you think of our beliefs.
RedCedar on February 25 at 12:48 p.m.
Since neither of you cares what the other one thinks, how about you both just live and let live? Terryalan gets to marry his sweetie and Local gets to marry his. Or not. As they see fit or as their various gods demand or prohibit.
Or to parse it more literally, Terryalan doesn’t care if Local disapproves of his personal life, and Local doesn’t care if Terryalan doesn’t care about Local’s disapproval. Now all we need is for Terryalan to not care that Local doesn’t care about the fact that Terryalan doesn’t care about Local’s disapproval, and we need Local to not care that Terryalan doesn’t care that Local doesn’t care about the fact that Terryalan doesn’t care about Local’s disapproval, at which point we can surely achieve the transcendental peace that comes only from infinite recursion.
Local on February 25 at 1:12 p.m.
“Terryalan gets to marry his sweetie..”
Maybe depending on the vote.
mdriftmeyer on February 25 at 1:19 p.m.
@Swensel on your first comment: Well said.
??Riddler?? on February 25 at 1:40 p.m.
?? WooWoo ??
?? How much aluminum foil does it take to make a really, really good alien-proof helmet ??
DeadHandsofChe on February 25 at 1:41 p.m.
dullmuse- posee? Really?
WooWoo on February 25 at 2:56 p.m.
@ericdx—
I’m not trying to fool anyone. Except for a morning cup of coffee, a moderate amount of chocolate and an occassional beer, I don’t use drugs. Even when I was arrested and then committed for thought crimes, the three psychiatrists that evaluated me didn’t diagnose any need by me for them. They also concluded no mental illness or personaility disorders. I suspect I might be one of the few people in Spokane that can claim to be certified sane.
I will admit, however, that I believe all drugs to be legal despite illegal laws regulating them that violate the 9th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Yes, the holocaust is a hoax and I don’t consider myself anti-semitic or stupid. In fact, one of the most successful debunkers of the holocaust is Jewish-American, David Cole, who revealed that the alleged gas chamber on the tour at Auschwitz had actually been built by the Soviets after liberation and that it was misrepresented to satisfy the ghoulish demands of brainwashed holocaust tourists.
Despite the claim that six million (Newt said 7 million during his speech at the Bing) Jews were exterminated, not a single photo of a gas chamber exists. Think about that. All of the soldiers that passed through the camps, Nuremberg TrIal investigators, etc. and not a single photo of a gas chamber exists. Also, there’s nowhere near enough ovens to incinerate anywhere near a quarter of the alleged dead. Do the arithmetic. Reveal the absurdity for yourself.
But the biggest evidence for a hoax is the fact that scholar historians and chemical engineers investigating and questioning the holocaust have been arrested and jailed for thoughtcrime (the bogus official European charge is “inciting race hatred.”) Laws are only necessary to protect lies. The TRUTH can stand on its own. The holocaust is a lie.
Did you know that Zyklon B is still manufactured as Uragan D2 in the Czech Republic? It’s manufacterers scoff at any idea it could be used effectively as an agent of mass murder. It’s hard I know; I used to be a believer too. We were all brainwashed. But summon the courage. Stop lugging around that lie.
And I don’t think I’m bigoted either nor a prick.
I think I’m trying clarify an issue that has been misrepresented as a civil rights issue. It’s a semantics issue.
Gays aren’t straight.
Homosexuals aren’t heterosexuals.
Heterosexuals get married.
Homosexuals get gayried.
Homos have gayriages.
Homos exchange gayriage vows.
Homos enjoy gayrital bliss.
Homos make gayriage proposals. Etc.
Homos should compromise. It’s absurd for them not to. A marriage is a union between a man and a woman. A gayriage is a union between a woman and a woman or a man and a man.
If you absolutely, positively need to get married, simply marry someone of the opposite sex. Or gayry someone of the same sex. But my advice to everyone is just stay single.
@??Riddler??— duh!
??Riddler?? on February 25 at 7:25 p.m.
?? WooWoo ??
?? Did you forget … shiny side OUT! ??