Christian Coalition Cries 'More!'

The Bush trial baloon, floated only yesterday, to pump $1.5 billion into "promoting marriage," especially among the "lower classes," has only irritated the Christian right, according to this morning's New York Times. (Background, see below, "At Least It'll Be Money Well Spent!" and "Reaction to Bush's Marriage Initiative")

On the one hand, Bush's pollster Ed Goeas is telling his boss, "I think there are a lot of people that don't want to endorse a lifestyle contrary to their personal values, but they want to be tolerant, and quite frankly they don't like being put in a position where they look to be intolerant."

The Christian right ain't nothing if it ain't intolerant, and they want nothing less than a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Karl Rove, for his part, brings pressure on Bush from that side: "...citing polling data, [Rove] has often said that he believed the failure of four million conservative Christian voters to turn out in the 2000 presidential election almost kept President Bush out of the White House. Projecting another close race this year, Mr. Rove has worked hard to stay in regular contact with conservative Christian political leaders."

Gary Bauer, the diminutive troll who ran for president last time on an anti-abortion, anti-gay platform and is now president of the conservative group American Values, warned darkly, "If the White House puts this on the back burner or doesn't put political capital into it, that would deeply demoralize a large block of voters that they are expecting to turn out in November."

And the Concerned Women of America, the big-hair group cloned exclusively from Phyllis Schlafly DNA, is even more willing to devour George W. Bush whole. Their comment on Mr. Bush's promise to spend a puny $1.5 billion on promoting marriage: "This is like lobbing a snowball at a forest fire," said Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women of America, one of the largest conservative Christian advocacy groups. "This administration is dancing dangerously around the issue of homosexual marriage."

Stand by for more developments, as George W. tries to figger out how to sup soup with the devil.