Marilyn Musgrave's Election Year Ploy: Push Marriage Ban To Divert Attention From Corruption, Iraq, Gas Prices
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 8, 2006
CONTACT: James Thompson (970) 222-6397
Marilyn Musgrave's Election Year Ploy: Push Marriage Ban To Divert Attention From Corruption, Iraq, Gas Prices
Musgrave "making a mockery of the Constitution," says opponent Angie Paccione.
WASHINGTON, D.C.For the second election year in a row, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave has introduced a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage just in time for campaign season.
State Rep. Angie Paccione, Musgrave's Democratic opponent in the race for Colorado's Fourth Congressional District, condemned Musgrave's introduction of the "Marriage Protection Act" this week as an election-year ploy to distract the American public from her party leadership's failures and to coax a disappointed base out to the polls in the midterm elections.
"Just whose marriage will be saved by Marilyn Musgrave? This is utterly disingenuous, discriminatory, and dishonorable," Paccione said. "The voters aren't going to be fooled by this pathetic attempt to distract our attention from scandals rocking the White House and Congress, the quagmire in Iraq, and skyrocketing gas prices."
Gay couples made a convenient target for Musgrave when she introduced a similar bill in 2004, breaking her promise not to focus on social wedge issues. Now she's at it again, breaking a similar promise she made last year not to push for legislation.
"Marilyn needed a scapegoat, someone she could lay the blame on for all of her shortcomings and all the nation's problems," Paccione said. "Once again, she chose decent, hardworking Americans minding their own business."
Paccione also expressed concern that Musgrave is "making a mockery of the Constitution to satisfy her personal obsession" with gay marriage. The proposed amendment would be the only constitutional amendment that actually permits discrimination, she said.
"Her desire for the federal government to control what we do with our private lives is completely at odds not only with traditional Republican ideals, but more importantly with America's deeply valued belief in liberty and the protection of privacy," Paccione said.
"Marilyn thinks the American people are ignorant. But we won't be tricked into following her extremist agenda while America falls apart," Paccione added. "When is she going to address the problems of families struggling to pay their mortgages, or families of veterans lost or injured, or single parents who work two jobs? Apparently, not anytime soon."
http://www.angie2006.com/newsroom_details.asp?id=859