UPDATE: Robin Carnahan: Missouri should consider civil unions
UPDATE: Glenn Burleigh, the head organizer of the St. Louis ACORN group, said the GOP is off base on its criticism of Carnahan over her communication with his group: “If she had not been in communications with a group involved in a major voters’ rights case, then she would have been in dereliction of duty as Secretary of State,” Burleigh says. “If the GOP would prefer that she just not do her job, that’s one thing, but she was performing mandated duties of her office, which I’m sure most Missouri voters would appreciate.”
JEFFERSON CITY — Senate candidate Robin Carnahan told law students at the University of Missouri last night that Missouri should consider allowing civil unions as an alternative to gay marriage.
According to The Maneater, a student newspaper on the MU campus, Carnahan, a Democrat who is Missouri’s Secretary of State, said this in response to a question about gay marriage:
“I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, but civil unions are something we should consider,” Carnahan said.
The issue should be handled by the states, Carnahan said. In 2004, Missourians voted for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state. Carnahan didn’t support the amendment. In a news release earlier this week, one of Carnahan’s Republican opponents, Congressman Roy Blunt, alleged that Carnahan would seek to overturn the “Defense of Marriage Act”, a federal law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.
At the law school event, Carnahan continued to dance around a specific position regarding the health care legislation under debate in Congress, choosing instead to outline broad principles she would support. Asked about the ‘public option’ Carnahan said this:
“That phrase is a distraction because I don’t care what we call it, what we know we have to have is greater access, more affordability and security in health care,” she said.
Carnahan also responded to recent criticism by the Missouri GOP trying to tie her to ACORN, the group that advocates for low-income citizens that has been under fire for alleged corruption.
Carnahan said she has no ties to ACORN. Her spokesman has previously said that she communicates with that group just as she does other other groups in her job as the Secretary of State. The Missouri GOP alleges that the e-mails between her top staff and ACORN indicate the relationship is “cozy.”
The GOP sent out a video this morning of Carnahan’s remarks that was taken by Arthur Nunn, a Columbia resident. While the GOP did have a tracker at the event, the video was not shot by someone associated with the party, said GOP spokesman Jonathan Prouty.
Robin needs to shut her mouth. I’m Republican and I can’t stand Roy Blunt, but she really needs to shut up. She could win easily, but she keeps talking. Ughgh.
Not being a big fan of marriage as an institution I have always felt that gays should have the same right to be stuck in relationships that are difficult to live with or get out of like every body else!
Until someone can explain in what way 2 people of the same sex being married affects any other homo- or heterosexual union, I cannot agree that civil unions are the answer. The answer is that this is (or at least, used to be) a free country and that any 2 or more consenting adults have every right to enter into a contract. That’s all “marriage” is. A legal contract that is enforceable in State court. There is absolutely no reason the government should be involved in this debate, at all.
Easy for her to say-she’s married. With “friends” like her who needs enemies?
Carnhan also believes ACORN is legit.
In 2006, Carnahan ordered the St. Louis Board of Elections to approve more than 5,000 questionable registrations submitted by ACORN. Earlier this year, she issued a report on the 2008 elections, yet she failed to mention ACORN’s organized effort to commit voter fraud across the state by submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registrations to county election boards in Missouri. ACORN even claimed that Carnahan had been “helpful[1]” in its lawsuit against the state of Missouri—a lawsuit that ended after the state agreed to pay ACORN $450,00
Any person that believes that ‘certain people’ should be relegated to a separate institution is, quite simply, a bigot. Look up the definition and tell me it isn’t so.
Robin Carnahan believes that gay Americans are not equal to her. She believes she is better than gay Americans. And more deserving of HER birthrights than THEY are of THEIRS.
Robin Carnahan should know that gay Americans ALREADY have the right to marry the person they love in ALL 50 states. But Heterosexual Americans are DENYING THAT RIGHT to the very gay children that Heterosexuals themselves created. Robin Carnahan should know that applying civil law unequally to law-abiding, tax-paying citizens is un-Constitutional. But even beyond that, it is HIGHLY immoral.
Morality indeed, folks. Morality indeed.
The government should get out of marriage, period.
Leave marriage to the churches and offer civil unions with all of the current legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage to any two consenting, unrelated adults who so choose.
Well said, Snootch. Of course, you just stepped into the trap that gay marriage opponents always set, that if you permit gay marriage, you logically should also permit polygamy. I’ve always thought that was an odd argument, considering the religious background of gay marriage opponents - after all, while the Bible declares sodomy to be a capital offense, it is silent on polygamy. Indeed, some of the best loved characters in the Bible had multiple wives.
Well, look who showed up! Dear Robin, you’re running for a Senate seat in the federal government. Ten percent unemployment, a dollar who’s value is sinking like a rock, Social Security and Medicare that are bankrupt, a tax system that is a hinderance to growth, a stalled economy, a war in Afghanistan where the situation is deteriorating, and a pending healthcare reform bill that’s going to bankrupt the country, and how high is the defecit/debt this week, somewhere in the 1.5/14 trillion dollar amount and you choose to talk about gay marriage? Do you seriously have a clue?
ED’S NOTE: Tony is not the only one deleting comments that are off-topic.