Bush’s amendment push met with skepticism

WASHINGTON – With his renewed call Monday for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, President Bush reasserted his allegiance to a conservative constituency whose support for him has significantly eroded in the face of soaring government spending and a controversial immigration proposal.

Bush urged Congress to approve the Marriage Protection Amendment, which is likely to fall short of the required two-thirds support in the Senate this week. But Bush’s own occasional support for the proposed amendment has fallen short of what the most conservative advocates are seeking, while exposing the president to criticism from liberals and moderates that he is pandering to the right.

Bush insisted Monday that same-sex marriage is a matter requiring “a national solution” and framed the debate as a battle between the voters, who in many states have enacted bans on gay marriage, and “activist judges” who have overturned those bans.

“On an issue of such profound importance, that solution should come not from the courts but from the people of the United States,” Bush said in a statement on the eve of the Senate debate on the proposed amendment, which kicks off today. “An amendment to the Constitution is necessary because activist courts have left our nation with no other choice.”

Democrats and gay activists charged that the election-year push for the constitutional amendment, which would define marriage as the union of a man and woman, was mostly intended to provide a political boost for Republicans.

In pressing for a vote this week, for instance, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is burnishing his conservative credentials for an expected 2008 presidential campaign. And congressional Republicans seeking re-election in November cannot afford to be abandoned by a conservative base that has provided crucial margins of victory in the past.

“Given (the president’s) low popularity ratings, I think he has a lot to risk in that this could be seen by some people like, ‘There he goes again,’ ” said Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor at Hope Christian Church in Maryland and a Democrat who joined Bush at a meeting of religious leaders Monday. Holding out hope for eventual adoption of the marriage amendment, Jackson said, “This is more like a marathon than a sprint.”

Yet for Bush, the expected failure of the amendment in the Senate could serve as a reminder for advocates that the president has only half-heartedly promoted the cause. While Bush devoted his weekly radio address to the amendment Saturday and made a statement urging its passage after meeting with religious leaders, the White House conceded that the president is not telephoning senators to seek their support.

Recent court rulings in Washington state, California, Maryland and New York overturning state initiatives against same-sex marriage have forced the issue of a constitutional amendment, said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman. To change the Constitution, a proposed amendment requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate and House, then ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.

The president’s failure to more aggressively promote the proposal “definitely disappoints conservative activists,” said Matt Daniels, founder and president of the Alliance for Marriage.

But he suggested Bush had little choice. “The White House does not want to be seen falsely as driving or manufacturing this debate,” Daniels said. “Most Americans are not conservative activists. They don’t live to fight these battles.”

As Bush sets out for a two-day cross-country tour on immigration reform, he is reaching out to moderates and angering the most conservative members of his party. But in promoting a marriage amendment, he is appealing to conservatives.

Polls show the president’s slumping job approval is tied not only to growing opposition to the Iraq war, but also to an erosion of support among conservative Republicans.

In Ohio, where voters helped re-elect Bush in 2004 and also approved an initiative banning same-sex marriages, Bush’s job approval has fallen to 35 percent – the lowest rate for a president since the University of Cincinnati’s Ohio Poll started its survey in 1981.