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Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004

After Bush's announcement Tuesday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said it would take time to gauge the level of support in Congress for a constitutional amendment. He suggested the difficulty of passing one might cause lawmakers to take a different approach to preserving marriage as a solely man-woman union.

"We don't want to do this in haste," DeLay said.

Edwards and Kerry Evasive

The front-runner for the Democrats' presidential nomination, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his leading rival, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, struggled to make their opposition to Bush's stance clear as they carefully tiptoed around politically sensitive turf.

Kerry said he supported civil unions, "and I think that that is permissible within state law, and it ought to be."

"If he really wants to help married couples, what he should be doing is helping them resolve their economic problems, their health care problems," Edwards said while campaigning in Georgia.

Meeting long-held expectations of his most conservative supporters, Bush argued that same-sex weddings threatened the institution of marriage, and thus society, and that actions by several local jurisdictions allowing gay marriage made federal intervention the only recourse.

"If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America," the president said. "Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society."

Bush called on Congress "to promptly pass and to send to the states for ratification" an amendment to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman. He had opposed legalizing civil unions as governor of Texas, but Bush left the door open for states to do so now, an alternative that gay rights groups find insufficient.

Bush's conservative supporters who view prohibiting gay marriage as a priority were thrilled.

"We are delighted the president has stepped forward on this issue and his announcement serves as a critical catalyst to energize and organize those who will work diligently to ensure that marriage remains an institution between one man and one woman," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of American Center for Law and Justice, a law firm founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson.

A majority of Americans, sometimes by as much as a 2-1 margin, oppose legalizing gay marriages. Still, Bush's move could hold political risks, especially if voters see him as intolerant or question his self-description as a "compassionate conservative."

Democrats promised to fight the amendment and criticized Bush for wanting to use the Constitution to take away rights. They said he was trying change the subject from questions on his leadership, the economy, his Vietnam-era military service and the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction he had alleged were in Iraq.

McAuliffe: 'Shameful'

"President Bush is tinkering with America's most sacred document in a shameful attempt to turn our attention away from his record as president," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Several GOP lawmakers said they would prefer to see Congress take a different route rather than amend the Constitution.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., a co-chairman of Bush's campaign in California in 2000, said he did not support a constitutional amendment. "I believe that this should go through the courts, and I think that we're at a point where it's not necessary," he said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the matter should be left to the states, and Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said changing the Constitution should be a last resort on almost any issue.

With some conservatives wanting a broader approach than Bush supports, and others opposing federalizing the issue, DeLay said it was "going to take some time" to unify those groups and examine other options.

"Constitutional amendment, I believe that is the ultimate remedy left for the Congress," he said. "We are looking at other ways of doing it."

Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group, worried that Bush risked alienating the 1 million gays who voted for him in 2000 by pushing for the constitutional amendment.

"We believe that this is a move to start a culture war, fueled and pushed by the radical right, that will end up in George Bush's defeat, and defeat for a lot of good Republicans who are with us on equality," Mark Mead, the group's political director, said in an interview with AP Radio.

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