Bush did not quite equate gay marriages with Al Qaeda, as Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum did: "Isn't that the ultimate homeland security — standing up and defending marriage?" Bush just held that gay marriages would destroy "the most fundamental institution of civilization."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer20jul20,1,4508486.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions


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At a Thursday news conference, Schwarzenegger was overcome with Davis- like delusions of hauteur when he declared himself a "warrior for the people of California" who was ready to break the will of a recalcitrant Legislature.

Leaders of the Democratic majority in both houses hardly seemed intimidated.

"It almost reminds me of someone who is gliding along really well in the water until he realizes he can't swim," Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, said of the governor's bravado. "Suddenly, it's ... 'Oh, my God.' "

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-S.F., suggested that Schwarzenegger's "borrow, defer, fund-shift, one-time fix" approach to budgeting has caught up with him.

"His butch act is to compensate for a lack of clarity as to what the next best step is," Leno said Friday.

Leno noted that several weeks ago Schwarzenegger called the delivery of an on-time budget his No. 1 priority. But as Senate President Pro Tem John Burton pointed out, the stalemate involves two measures that have "little or nothing to do'' with balancing this year's budget: a loosening of rules on the contracting out of school services and a repeal of a law that allows employees to sue their bosses to enforce labor laws

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/19/EDGD56NAT41.DTL