Amend this...

Tuesday we saw another inspiring moment from President Bush, as he "reached out" to the far conservative wing of his party, the one that he has been pissing off regularly with his fiscal irresponsibility, by declaring his support for an amendment to the US Constitution banning gay marriage.

You may recall, as I do, that the President spent a good deal of time in the 2000 campaign reminding us that he was a "compassionate conservative."  He was also for smaller government, less spending, and the idea that the decision whether or not to allow gays to marry be left up to each individual state.

Yep, that's right, the President did not support the same amendment he called for today back in 2000.  Smaller government, remember, so leave it up to the states.  Besides, the money it would cost to lobby for the amendment and such would be too much.  And since we'd be cutting spending, where would the funding come from anyway?

We all know that 9/11 changed this administrations policy on spending and small government.  9/11 changed everything, so we have been told several times.  So of course I am waiting for the President to tell us how 9/11 has changed his policy on this amendment.

Let's play "sentence association": I will give you a phrase and you tell me what a Republican will reply.  Ready?  Here goes:

I say "Gun control"

You say "We can't change the Constitution!  It's a sacred document that gives us all definitive rights!"

BING BING BING!!!  You play this game very well.  We will retire you as champion right now.  Yes, we cannot change the Constitution just because 10,000 people on average are killed by guns each year, but we CAN change it if you want to burn a flag or marry someone of your gender.  Makes complete and total sense to me.

I remember when I was in high school it was required that we pass a state wide test on the US Constitution in order to graduate. I recall that every single thing I read about it pounded the same thing over and over into my skull, that this is a country of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, where all men are created equal. 

The Constitution exists to give us things, not to take them away.  The only addition to the Constitution that took things from us was prohibition, and we all know how wonderful that turned out.

Think if only Al Capone was gay...