Mass. governor wants gay wedding vote

Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday he would ask the state's highest court to order an anti-gay marriage amendment question onto the ballot if legislators fail to vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.

Romney said he would file a legal action this week asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers don't vote directly on the question Jan. 2, the final day of the session.

Romney, an opponent of gay marriage who decided not to seek re-election as he considers running for president, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of gay marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps.

David Weber

Romney appears to have begun the serious pandering for his 2008 run at the White House. He had previously been stumping on his newly discovered pro-life stance. Now he seems to be selling himself as a viable alternative to Giuliani with this posturing.

"A decision not to vote is a decision to usurp the Constitution, to abandon democracy and substitute a form of what this nation's founders called tyranny, that is, the imposition of the will of those in power, on the people," Romney said earlier. "The issue now before us is not whether same-sex couples should marry. The issue before us today is whether 109 legislators will follow the Constitution."

Romney demonstrates that he is as ignorant of Republican principles as he is of foundational principles of the Constitution. This pandering to direct democracy just shows that he's associated with the wrong party.