Top McCain Aide Backs Same Sex Marriage

[UNHWildCats]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key architect of Republican Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign has urged conservatives to drop their opposition to same-sex marriage.

Steve Schmidt served as Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign manager in 2008.

In a speech Friday to Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative gay rights group, Steve Schmidt said allowing same-sex marriage is in line with the conservative credo of keeping government out of people's private lives.

"There is a sound conservative argument to be made for same-sex marriage," Schmidt, who was McCain's campaign manager, told the group. "I believe conservatives, more than liberals, insist that rights come with responsibilities. No other exercise of one's liberty comes with greater responsibilities than marriage. In a marriage, two people are completely responsible to and for each other."

He added: "If you are not willing to accept and faithfully discharge those responsibilities, you shouldn't enter the state of matrimony, and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you're straight or gay. It is a responsibility like no other, which can and should make marriage an association between two human beings more fulfilling than any other."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/17/ ... index.html

[TwinTownBisonFan]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key architect of Republican Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign has urged conservatives to drop their opposition to same-sex marriage.

Steve Schmidt served as Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign manager in 2008.

In a speech Friday to Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative gay rights group, Steve Schmidt said allowing same-sex marriage is in line with the conservative credo of keeping government out of people's private lives.

"There is a sound conservative argument to be made for same-sex marriage," Schmidt, who was McCain's campaign manager, told the group. "I believe conservatives, more than liberals, insist that rights come with responsibilities. No other exercise of one's liberty comes with greater responsibilities than marriage. In a marriage, two people are completely responsible to and for each other."

He added: "If you are not willing to accept and faithfully discharge those responsibilities, you shouldn't enter the state of matrimony, and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you're straight or gay. It is a responsibility like no other, which can and should make marriage an association between two human beings more fulfilling than any other."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/17/ ... index.html

I may agree with him... but disagree with him doing this.

we are operatives, not fucking celebrities... same goes for Joe Trippi, Jimmy Carville and Karl Rove...

operatives do not seek press. if your name appears in the paper, it's because you fucked up.

[Cleets Part 2]

I may agree with him... but disagree with him doing this.

we are operatives, not f**k[*] celebrities... same goes for Joe Trippi, Jimmy Carville and Karl Rove...

operatives do not seek press. if your name appears in the paper, it's because you f**k[*] up.

Uh.. oh...
The Evil Cleetus is going to come out...

First of all, Politicians and political aids and the whole lot of them are self serving douche bags...
The expectation that a politician or his lynch mob should behave with honor and dignity is ridiculous

And secondly: The notion of "Hold the party line" no matter right or wrong... comes from the Reagan era
and is a sad hold-over: prior to that politicians were more able to "be themselves" and think independently

independent thought is now gone: Thus another nail in the American political coffin...

[slycat]

I may agree with him... but disagree with him doing this.

we are operatives, not f**k[*] celebrities... same goes for Joe Trippi, Jimmy Carville and Karl Rove...

operatives do not seek press. if your name appears in the paper, it's because you f**k[*] up.

Uh.. oh...
The Evil Cleetus is going to come out...

First of all, Politicians and political aids and the whole lot of them are self serving douche bags...
The expectation that a politician or his lynch mob should behave with honor and dignity is ridiculous

And secondly: The notion of "Hold the party line" no matter right or wrong... comes from the Reagan era
and is a sad hold-over: prior to that politicians were more able to "be themselves" and think independently

independent thought is now gone: Thus another nail in the American political coffin...

I completely agree. I drives me crazy how politicians are run out if they don;t think down the party line. That is the true root of the problem in politics.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

for me this is a professional gripe... in our business there is an unwritten code about not doing what he did. an operative should not make him/herself the story. i know that personally, i would never even consider hiring someone whose name was in the papers.

my staffers are severely restricted in this regard... i've fired people for talking to reporters and for blogging... it's not done. You don't make yourself bigger than the campaign. this guy violated the code...

on top of that... as nasty as these campaigns are getting, it's making it dangerous to do our jobs... i've had staffers harassed, and it's likely only a matter of time before staffers names begin getting posted online... dangerous.

keep our heads down, do our jobs... don't make ourselves the story.

[Pwns]

It's more about equality than it's about "keeping the government out of people's private lives". Pro-gay conservatives really don't do the cause any good by making it an issue of the government staying out of the private lives of people.

[Ivytalk]

for me this is a professional gripe... in our business there is an unwritten code about not doing what he did. an operative should not make him/herself the story. i know that personally, i would never even consider hiring someone whose name was in the papers.

my staffers are severely restricted in this regard... i've fired people for talking to reporters and for blogging... it's not done. You don't make yourself bigger than the campaign. this guy violated the code...

on top of that... as nasty as these campaigns are getting, it's making it dangerous to do our jobs... i've had staffers harassed, and it's likely only a matter of time before staffers names begin getting posted online... dangerous.

keep our heads down, do our jobs... don't make ourselves the story.

So did George Snuffleuppagus... broke the code of Omerta...now look at him!

[TwinTownBisonFan]

for me this is a professional gripe... in our business there is an unwritten code about not doing what he did. an operative should not make him/herself the story. i know that personally, i would never even consider hiring someone whose name was in the papers.

my staffers are severely restricted in this regard... i've fired people for talking to reporters and for blogging... it's not done. You don't make yourself bigger than the campaign. this guy violated the code...

on top of that... as nasty as these campaigns are getting, it's making it dangerous to do our jobs... i've had staffers harassed, and it's likely only a matter of time before staffers names begin getting posted online... dangerous.

keep our heads down, do our jobs... don't make ourselves the story.

So did George Snuffleuppagus... broke the code of Omerta...now look at him!

yeah... he did... so did begala, carville, rove, joe trippi... guys like that deserve to be out of the business... too many wannabe pundits come to work on campaigns... weeding them out is a pain in the ass... I've had to explain too many times to kids on a campaign "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT POLICY OR ISSUES... I don't care what I think about them either... now go back and start calling voters again dingus"

and then about 20% don't come back. annoying... esp. among the doe-eyed Obama-kids (and MANY 30+ too) who stormed out of my office pissed because they weren't allowed, with their 15 minutes of experience to run our campaign... or they wanted to sit and "discuss issues"... yeesh...

the upshot, with Obama's people was that they, moreso than say... Kerry's supporters... seemed to get that rookies on a campaign are dogs... and they were willing to do whatever was asked.