EPT for Republicans

Republican candidates for the Massachusetts legislature next year will have to pass a litmus test on Gay Marriage.

The Republican State Committee has a problem. They're planning to support the amendment referendum that should be on the ballot in November of 2006, once the legislature approves it again in this session. This issue is the heart and soul of the party. The problem is that some of the Republican incumbents and the many of the potential republican candidates do not support the constitutional amendment defining marriage to the exclusion of gays while creating a special civil status for their unions.

Public opinion has shifted since the Supreme Court authorized gay marriage last year. Getting elected anywhere but in the Romney suburbs opposing gay marriage is not a good bet. But in order to create support for the amendment referendum, the State Committee has to create discipline in the party. In other words, they can't have the Gubenatorial candidate running in one direction and the undercard running in the other.

So the party is looking for a few good candidates to run in the districts, who support the amendment referendum, even at the expense of candidates who do not.

Here in our own lower Cape district, currently represented by Shirley Gomes (R) Harwich, (she's retiring to avoid the question), there seems to be a candidate that has a chance to keep the seat for the Jumbos, but doesn't support the amendment. So what do you think the State GOP's going to do? Find a candidate that will support it. Even if he doesn't live in the district. I kid you not!

You'd think they would learn. Last year they sent us a couple of carpetbaggers to run for the Senate seats from the Cape. That and all their other attempts to win some seats in the legislature and gain some credibility, failed utterly. So let's try it again.

But check with Mitt first. He's made some curious moves recently. Particularly backing away from the compromise amendment. Now he needs to be outrightly opposed to gay marriage. After all what would his friends in Utah say about his supporting Civil Unions? What would the voters of Ohio say?

With Mitt running for President, you'd think they'd just call the whole thing off. So what's this all about? Kerry Healy is calling the shots at the party now. Don't forget she used to run the State Committee. She needs support from the party regulars, and doesn't need voters to be confused next year. It's hard enough running for Governor without having the candidates for the House and Senate from her own party defecting to get elected.

Just like with the early pregnancy test, where you can't be a little bit pregnant, with this early political test, Republicans can't be a little bit gay.

A Fool's Errand

Saving Otis, that is.
Senator Warner has been trying his best to kill the Cape Wind project, while Senator Kennedy has been trying to save Otis AFB. Has it occurred to Kennedy, who has been asking Warner to help him kill the wind farm, to ask him to help save Otis?

Senator John Warner (R-Virginia) is a member of the all-powerful Armed Services Committee, (and chairs the subcommittee that oversees the Army Corp of Engineers, the regulatory agency permitting Cape Wind). Doesn't the same committee have jurisdiction over the defense budget? You'd think he could exert a little influence on base closings even though the process is suppose to be non-partisan.

Is Kennedy Warner's Senator? Or is Warner Kennedy's Senator?
But this is where the state's part time senator from Osterville parts way with the state's full-time senator from Hyannisport. You can't pick and choose which issues you want to deal with if you're the senior Senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy is for saving the base. And he's for killing the wind farm. Keep the government jobs. Forgo the private (union) ones.

But if you're not elected from here, you can pick and choose what you want to save or kill. Osterville cares about their precious view. They could care less about the 102nd Airborne. Even if Warner were to take an interest now, don't look for Otis to survive. The writing's on the wall. And Warner is nobody's fool.

Senator Warner was in Osterville this past weekend attending a family wedding. Maybe Bunny Mellon, Osterville doyen, (and Warner's ex-step-mother-in-law) should have asked him to save Otis.