WASHINGTON – President Bush and his political lieutenants want the Republican National Convention in New York this month to exude the same sense of unity that characterized the Democratic love fest in Boston.
But away from the spotlight, fierce infighting is about to break out over the GOP platform’s stance on gay rights. The issue is important to the White House because the appearance of intolerance toward gays and minorities could sway critical swing voters.
Log Cabin Republicans, a group of 12,000 gay conservatives, is teaming with Republicans who support abortion rights to challenge the expected GOP platform on family issues.
The GOP’s platform from 2000 is expected to be the framework for this year’s effort. It declares that marriage is the “legal union of one man and one woman,” and that “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”
The Log Cabin Republicans plan to hold a news conference today with Republicans for Choice and the Republican Youth Majority to outline their strategy.
Pitching a “party unity plank,” they are suggesting that the platform declare that “Republicans of good faith disagree” on family issues – language sure to be an anathema to the president and his base of social conservative supporters.
Differences between the White House and Log Cabin Republicans widened in February, when Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Now, gay Republicans hope to embolden Bush to embrace their “big tent” language in the platform, signaling to social conservatives that the party has room for gays and for voters who back abortion rights.
Social conservatives think that unlikely – a change in platform language now “would be puzzling,” said Reagan-era domestic policy aide Gary Bauer. But Log Cabin officials said they saw some movement by the administration last week.
President Bush, in an interview with CNN’s Larry King on Thursday, said the debate over gay marriage “must be conducted with the greatest respect for people … I think our society is great because people are able to live their lifestyles, you know, as they choose or as they’re oriented.”
If the GOP Platform Committee, which meets the week before the convention, rejects the Log Cabin Republicans’ plank, they hope to collect enough signatures from six state delegations to force a fight on the floor – a prospect convention planners dread.
By advocating a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, Bush has calculated that he would rather risk the votes of the estimated 1 million gays and lesbians who voted for him in 2000 than anger evangelicals who feel passionately about the issue, political observers say.
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