Gay-nups ban in cards, sez Rove
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Monday, November 8th, 2004

WASHINGTON - President Bush need not worry any longer about getting
reelected, but he "absolutely" plans to champion a gay marriage ban
anyway, his top political adviser promised yesterday.

"If we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for
the ideal. And the ideal is that marriage ought to be and should be a
union of a man and a woman," White House political guru Karl Rove told
"Fox News Sunday."

Rove, who engineered Bush's victory last week over Sen. John Kerry
(D-Mass.), said Bush will use the political capital he has accumulated
to make a renewed push on moral grounds to outlaw gay marriage through
a proposed constitutional amendment.

"Without the protection of that amendment, we are at the mercy of
activist federal judges or activist state judges who could ... without
the involvement of the people, determine, as the Massachusetts Supreme
Court did, that marriage no longer consists of a union between a man
and a woman," Rove said.

However, two key moderates, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Chuck
Hagel (R-Neb.), said the ban is unnecessary.

Bush also believes that states should decide how relationships are
legally defined, including "proper protections" that would insure gays
could make hospital visits and inherit property, Rove said.

But influential fundamentalist Christian leader James Dobson said he
disagreed with Bush's endorsement of civil unions enacted by
individual states.

"I think the President made a big mistake there," Dobson told ABC's
"This Week."

Rove said 34% of the voters were motivated by issues surrounding Iraq
and the war on terrorism, compared with 30% motivated by moral values.

"What essentially happened in this election was that people became
concerned about three issues: first the war; then the economy, jobs
and taxes, and then moral values. And then everything else dropped off
of the plate," Rove told NBC.

Rove yesterday also said that:

# Kerry's comment that he voted for the $87 billion for the troops
# before voting against it was "the gift that kept on giving."

# Despite Bush's jacket bulge in the debates, "There was nothing there."

http://www.nydailynews.com/11-08-2004/news/wn_report/story/250630p-214648c.html