AMNESTY BATTLE: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is on the record favoring some kind of amnesty for illegal immigrants while amnesty bills in Congress have been gaining steam. President Bush has not made his position clear, but conservatives are relieved that he at least does not favor total amnesty. "In light of recent comments by Secretary Ridge concerning adjustments to the status of individuals in the United States illegally, I was pleased to hear you state that the administration opposes blanket amnesty," wrote Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.) to Bush on December 15. "It is my hope that in the near future you further clarify the administration’s position to be in opposition to any type of amnesty. Secretary Ridge’s comments have stirred quite a discussion in my district. Many of the people who have approached me in town hall meetings to register their opposition are legal and naturalized citizens who abided by the rule of law and went through the appropriate steps to adjust their status legally." Blackburn also said, "I believe that any type of amnesty will undermine much of the hard work your administration and Congress have done to protect and secure the homeland."
BUSH & CIVIL UNIONS: President Bush appeared to accept the idea of granting civil unions to homosexual couples in his recent interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer. "President Bush last night drove a wedge into the pro-family effort to preserve the institution of marriage by signaling that his administration supports the creation of homosexual civil unions or domestic partnerships at the state level," reported Concerned Women for America on December 17. Bush had said, "If necessary, I will support a constitutional amendment which would honor marriage between a man and a woman, codify that, and [will say] the position of this administration is that whatever legal arrangements people want to make, they’re allowed to make, so long as it’s embraced by the state or. . .start at the state level." "Whether it’s done by a state, a court or the federal government, creating counterfeit marriage is immoral and destructive," said Concerned Women of America President Sandy Rios. Added Bob Knight, director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, "President Bush is rejecting Judeo-Christian moral teaching in order to please homosexual activists and some misguided advisors who think this will be politically advantageous. But this is not only immoral, it is bad politics."
CMR OKAY: The Center for Military Readiness (CMR), the primary crusader trying to keep military women out of combat, has been under legal attack for years because of its reporting on the deficiencies of women pilots. On December 12, the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in CMR’s favor, possibly ending the small non-profit’s legal troubles. A former female F-14 pilot sued CMR and its president, Elaine Donnelly, seven years ago claiming defamation. "In an opinion released on December 12, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit voted unanimously that U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth was correct in dismissing Lohrenz v. Donnelly & CMRM on a motion for summary judgment on Aug. 16, 2002."
SOBERING: "U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson [R.-Fla.] said Monday that the Bush Administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities," reported Florida Today on December 15. "Nelson said about 75 senators got that news during a classified briefing before last October’s congressional vote authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power."
MILLER TIME: Retiring Sen. Zell Miller (D.-Ga.) has gotten a lot of press for criticizing his fellow Democrats for their increasingly leftist policies. During a Senate speech on the Democrats’ filibuster of Bush’s judicial nominees, Miller cited a longtime conservative activist for support. "I want to quote a Georgian named Phil Kent," said Miller. "In his book The Dark Side of Liberalism, Kent takes the liberal argument in this controversy and states it. He says: ‘The United States comprises diverse peoples and cultures. As such, judges should have the power to change laws when circumstances dictate. The U.S. Constitution is a document in flux, and is many times irrelevant in modern society. . . .’ That is what the Democrats have been saying to us in all this debate. Then Kent answered this premise: ‘We are a nation of laws, not of men. Our government is constitutional, not political.’"
