We can't help who we fall in love with

Dallas Morning News | Steve Blow:

"But I understand that society changes in stages. So if it's just words that hang people up, then fine, let's find some new ones for this new territory. Fairness is the real issue here, not vocabulary. And that's where Proposition 2 goes wrong. This amendment goes far beyond defining marriage. In a case of overkill, it goes on to deny gay people 'any legal status identical to or similar to marriage.'"

It's not "just words" that hang up the people behind this amendment to the Texas Constitution. And fairness is irrelevant. To them, the issue is homosexuality itself. To them, it's a sin. They'd like it to be a crime. When sodomy laws are struck down, they make a tactical retreat and throw up the next line of defense, so-called marriage protection acts.

The "overkill" in the amendment's wording is not an accident. If the authors of the amendment had their way, gay people would be denied not only legal status similar to marriage, but legal status at all. They'd be made criminals for being homosexual.

Conservative core lays bare its distrust of president's judgment

Dallas Morning News | Steve Blow:

"Put aside the debate for a moment of whether she was the best possible pick for the court. Let's consider only whether the president had the opportunity to thoroughly know her views, philosophy and capability. Obviously he did. And yet the overwhelming response from his supporters was: We don't trust you to make that call. In truth, many never did trust him all that much."

A common story. In 2004, Democrats nominated John Kerry, not out of enthusiasm, but because he offered the best hope of victory. George W Bush was that candidate for conservatives in 2000. Bush presented himself as a "compassionate conservative". The base wanted a "conservative" and was willing to go with the "compassionate" side because it offered the best hope of victory. Their loyalty was never to the man; it was to the movement. Now, in the downward side of his Presidency, the movement sees the fruits of its victory slipping away with the nomination of an unknown like Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court instead of a proven staunch conservative. It was no surprise that the movement would turn on George W Bush. What is less predictable is whether Bush will surrender to the social conservatives with his next pick or whether he will maintain his stated principle of not insisting on any "litmus tests" for Supreme Court nominees.

Conservatives wouldn't even give Miers a chance

Dallas Morning News | William McKenzie:

"If movement conservatives want to maintain their power, they had better think about that. They own Washington today. They've proved that. Now, they'd better run it right. No more whining."

Whining is a winning strategy. President Ronald Reagan won re-election by running as the outsider, whining about the insiders. So did George W Bush. Conservatives control the White House, Congress and the Courts but still whine as if Washington is in the hands of liberals. Despite the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and Pat Robertson, conservatives continue to whine about the media being liberal. In part, it's just smart politics. Americans hate Washington, so never admit you are in charge there. Conservatives have invested so much in casting themselves as the outsiders battling the established powers, that they believe it must still be so, even now when they control most levers of power.

Ironically, as the number of liberal opponents dwindles, the conservative tent has room for an ever smaller number of true believers. Conservatives begin to turn on their own, tearing down nominees like Harriet Miers as not being sufficiently conservative. Even President Bush finds himself at risk of being tossed out. The infighting will only grow worse as the realization grows that so much of what's gone wrong in this country over the last decade has happened on their watch.

Rosa Parks' legacy

Dallas Morning News | Jacquielynn Floyd:

"Contemporary excesses of correctness (and there are plenty) don't hold a sputtering candle to the outright abuses that were then enshrined in law."

Contemporary excesses of correctness. Excellent phrase, that. If society has overcorrected and the pendulum has swung a little past center, it's understandable. If. For now, society deserves the benefit of the doubt to keep the "outright abuses" of the past from making a comeback.

The Thrill of the Leak

Dallas Morning News | Mark Davis:

"We've been buried in anticipatory stories as reporters giddily anticipate what many of them see as The Next Watergate, the possible indictment of two lofty figures in the Bush White House. Doubters say this is much ado about nothing, a story completely contrived by those who drool at the prospect of scandal tainting this administration. What's an objective soul to do?"

Implied is that Mark Davis himself is that objective soul. Mark Davis says "let's all be honest with ourselves." But is he? He lays out the divide by talking about "giddy" reporters "drooling" of scandal. He offers no hint of the emotional or ideological motives that taint the President's defenders. He then goes on for the rest of the column casting doubt on and downplaying the seriousness of the potential charges against Rove and Libby. Fully identifying himself with the doubters he talked about in the third person to open his column. So much for objectivity.

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