George Bush suddenly likes the gays

You know Bush has gotta be desperate when he thinks embracing gay civil unions is somehow going to win him the election. Talk about your last minute deseration. And I can only imagine the phone calls Karl Rove is getting from the religious right today about this little Bush bimbo eruption. So much for turning out the base.

This from the NYT:

President Bush said in an interview this past weekend that he disagreed with the Republican Party platform opposing civil unions of same-sex couples and that the matter should be left up to the states.

Mr. Bush has previously said that states should be permitted to allow same-sex unions, even though White House officials have said he would not have endorsed such unions as governor of Texas. But Mr. Bush has never before made a point of so publicly disagreeing with his party's official position on the issue.

In an interview on Sunday with Charles Gibson, an anchor of "Good Morning America" on ABC, Mr. Bush said, "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do so." ABC, which broadcast part of the interview on Monday, is to broadcast the part about civil unions on Tuesday.

According to an ABC transcript, Mr. Gibson then noted to Mr. Bush that the Republican Party platform opposed civil unions.

"Well, I don't," Mr. Bush replied.

He added: "I view the definition of marriage different from legal arrangements that enable people to have rights. And I strongly believe that marriage ought to be defined as between a union between a man and a woman. Now, having said that, states ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others."

Mr. Gibson then asked, "So the Republican platform on that point, as far as you're concerned, is wrong?"

"Right," Mr. Bush replied.

Of course, Bush is a duplicitous ass (or more likely, a moron) because his own federal constitutional amendment he offered would have banned civil unions in the states, and the various state constitutional amendments would do the same. So is Bush now saying he OPPOSES the state constitutional amendments and state laws, like in Virginia, that ban civil unions?

Perhaps this is why Pat Robertson took a swipe at the president last week. Bush is running scared, and he just threw the religious right overboard.