Bush plays politics with gay marriage

[dArKeR]

By Richard Stevenson
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , Washington

From the beginning, gay marriage has been an issue that US President George W. Bush has tried to finesse.

Under election-year pressure from his fundamentalist political base, Bush endorsed the effort to adopt a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. He recently turned up the volume on the issue, talking about about it in his weekly radio address and calling wavering senators in an attempt to shore up support for the measure as it headed toward a crucial procedural vote.

But after endorsing the measure in February, he would often go weeks without mentioning it in public, suggesting a personal and/or political reticence about pushing it too hard. And when he did raise the topic, he was careful to modulate his message to avoid alienating moderate voters, warning in particular against allowing the issue to become an excuse for gay-bashing.

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