Friday, April 24, 2009

Iowa Senator Makes Defiant Act Against Gay Marriage

One Republican lawmaker's bluff and bluster is being challenged and a social conservative group says it will legally back up opponents of the decision.

Yesterday, Ed Fallon, a former legislator from Des Moines, filed a formal ethics complaint against Senator Merlin Bartz, a Republican from Grafton who has urged county recorders to defy the state Supreme Court's April 3 decision that legalized gay marriage, reports the Des Moines Register.

Fallon claims Bartz has violated his oath of office by urging county recorders to break the law.

“It's really important that state lawmakers respect their oath of office and we have really serious questions about whether that's happening in this case,” he said.

From OnTopMag.com:

On Tuesday, Bartz attempted to give shelter to county recorders by introducing an amendment that would allow county recorders who objected to gay marriage to refuse to issue a marriage license to gay and lesbian couples on “conscientious” grounds. Senate leaders ruled the issue out of order and it was not debated.

Bartz is also supporting a petition drive by the Iowa Family Policy Center, the state's primary anti-gay marriage group, that urges country recorders to ignore the court's ruling.

Fallon's complaint questions if Republican legislative staffers were used to develop a website dedicated to promoting the petition.

State Attorney General Tom Miller has repeatedly warned country recorders that they cannot refuse to issue a marriage license to gay and lesbian couples. A position Bartz criticized in a press release titled Bartz To AG: Stop The Hypocrisy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. For so many years I had been under the impression that when a person applied for a job - they read the job description and asked any questions they might have about what the job entails. Then when the prospective employer makes the offer - either the person accepts the job or declines the offer.

Now, I understand that some details of jobs can change with time - but I truly believe that Senator Merlin Bartz really really goofed with this one.

Maybe .. though ... part of the problem is that .... Senator Bartz really didn't/doesn't understand the job description of his own job...? Hmmm!

Possibly ?? : )

* said...

In Iowa anything and apparently everything is possible.

John Hosty said...

Iowa is going to have their hands full in the upcoming months with outside of the state pressure from political groups akin to Massachusetts Family Institute. It's going to take all of us debunking the lies and misrepresentations to come to Iowa's aid in order to shorten the squabble. I say shorten because no matter what truth will always triumph in the end.