Will of the People, My Ass

From Towleroad:

Governor Douglas has said that he opposes the bill, and this afternoon he announced he plans to veto it. He said he made the announcement to stop speculation and to focus attention on economy."

As one of Andrew Sullivan's readers points out:

The legislature has already taken up the marriage issue, debated it, resolved it, and voted. If he were to sign the bill, there would be nothing else to distract the legislature from its economic responsibilities. By vetoing it, he's guaranteeing that legislators will go through another round of debate and voting.

Douglas is pretty transparent here -- this is politics as usual, GOP style: feed the base.

Update: It occurs to me that Gov. Douglas is really between a rock and a hard place here, which probably goes to explain his reticence on this bill before now: ideologically, and since he does have to deal with the wingnut branch of the party to a greater or lesser extent, he has to oppose equal marriage rights for gays. However, not that I expect this to register with a lot of people, he is thwarting the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives (and, might I point out, that expression is exactly in line with the position of the "don't rock the boat" contingent of gay commentators as well as the right wingnuts who insist that such social issues be left up to "the people" to decide) because of his personal beliefs. (Need I say once again that the will of the people is only supreme when it suits the theocrats?)

As for urging the legislature to focus on the economic crisis, that is, first of all, pretty much a gimme: nothing more than a ploy. And, as any number of commentators have pointed out, he has made that impossible by pledging to veto the bill. He's left the legislature no choice but to take up the question again. I mean, does anyone expect them to just drop it at this point? There's not only the fact that it has momentum and wide-spread support, but there's the fact that this is, indeed, the will of the people of Vermont and Douglas has not advanced a rational reason for opposing it.

(And on that score, I'll try to come back to yesterday's post in more depth for FGB, probably on Saturday.)