NJ Court Hands GOP Election Reprieve, While Soldiers Go Ignored

The Republican Party got a slight reprieve in its downward spiral yesterday, with the New Jersey supreme court making what is sure to be a controversial ruling on gay marriage.

The ruling grants gay couples in that state the same legal rights as married heterosexual couples, but ultimately leaves it up to the New Jersey legislature to decide on the issue of full-blown marriage.

But this couldn't have come at a better time for the GOP, which stands to lose control of Congress in November barring massive, systemic electoral fraud.

Plagued by scandals -- including one in which a Florida Republican's sexual predations of teenaged boys was covered up by top House GOP leaders including Dennis Hastert and John Boehner -- things appeared to be looking up for America despite the passage of legislation further gutting the Constitution while granting the Bush regime broad powers to torture prisoners.

It didn't help that a top evangelical who served in George W. Bush's office of faith-based initiatives at the White House released a book exposing the pandering assholes for what they are.

But now, we have this gay marriage ruling in New Jersey, with which to rile up the evangelical whackos too stupid to know they're being used.

Which is a shame, really, because time is short with less than two weeks to go before the midterm election. Democrats don't have a whole lot of time to kill this ruling as a spinmeister's wet dream.

But even worse than having the potential to weaken America's chances of restoring freedom to herself, this ruling has the potential to bury a significant news item. More than 200 active duty U.S. soldiers are calling for a withdrawal from Iraq.

The campaign, called the Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq, is the first of its kind in the Iraq war and takes advantage of Defense Department rules allowing active duty troops to express personal opinions to members of Congress without fear of retaliation, organizers said.

"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," states the appeal posted on the campaign's Web site at www.appealforredress.org.

"Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home," it adds.

This news story is important, because the invasion and occupation of Iraq stands to be the referendum on which this election will be decided. Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee to replace Republican-in-all-but-name Senator Joe Lieberman, won the Connecticut primary largely because constituents are sick of the incumbent's endless rubber stamping for Bush's policies, especially in Iraq.

Republican corruption, and the party's insane focus on wedge issues at the expense of meat and potatoes issue like jobs, health care, the economy and education, has also contributed to the crises facing the nation. Rather than actually do anything about the important issues, the GOP chooses to focus on gay marriage as if that and not the Bush regime were somehow the bigger threat to Americans.

When hundreds of U.S. soldiers, given a rare opportunity to have a voice, call for a withdrawal from Iraq it should be big news. It should gain front page headlines, over the New Jersey court ruling.

Unfortunately, with the GOP standing to lose its grip on power, its friends in the corporate media will ignore the real story in favor of yet more fluff.