Wow, Romney's in a deeper hole than even we at MassResistance knew! Not only is he pretending he couldn't stop homosexual "marriages" from commencing in May 2004 (falsely claiming the SJC ruling had the power of law). Now the Globe reports that in 2005 he "approved at least 189 requests from same-sex couples" for the special one-day marriage certificates only he can issue! Disgraceful.
The Governor, his chief of staff, and the Boston Globe still don't get it: There is no law (statute) establishing homosexual "marriage" in Massachusetts! So they can't get away with saying "he's just applying the law fairly." How strange that even Romney's top legal adviser (from the Spring of 2004) told the Globe "the governor cannot legally apply a statute selectively."
MassResistance asks: WHAT STATUTE? Can they please give us the reference to the Mass. law that applies here? Just repeating over and over that "gay marriage is legal in Mass." doesn't make it so. And the Governor trying to hide behind staffers processing the applications won't work. (Romney has even bragged that some of his top staffers are gay! That might explain some of the problems we're having with him...)
But word is starting to get out to conservatives around the country that Romney has seriously violated his oath protect our state constitution.
From the Boston Globe, "Some see conflict for Romney on gay marriage", by Scott Helman and Scott Greenberger:
For 17 years, Massachusetts couples have asked friends, family, and loved ones to solemnize their marriages under an obscure state law allowing the governor to grant one-day certificates to officiate a wedding.
Since same-sex marriage became legal in May 2004, Governor Mitt Romney has approved scores of such requests from gay and lesbian couples, creating a ticklish political situation for the staunch gay-marriage opponent as he gears up for a possible presidential bid in 2008. Romney approved at least 189 requests from same-sex couples in 2005, along with about 1,040 applications for heterosexual couples.
The one-day certificates, which cost $25, allow virtually anyone to legally solemnize a marriage anywhere in the Commonwealth....
Romney's communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, said that even though the governor opposes gay marriage, it would be discriminatory and illegal for him to apply the law regarding the one-day certificates differently to same-sex couples....
Fehrnstrom added that Romney's staff, not the governor himself, routinely handles and approves the applications....
Daniel Winslow, Romney's top legal adviser at the time [2004], said in an interview last week that attorney-client privilege prevented him from commenting on whether the administration discussed internally the one-day licenses as they pertained to gay marriage. But as a general principle, he said, the governor cannot legally apply a statute selectively. ''If you do them, you gotta do them," Winslow said. ''It's got to be applied evenly across the board."
The Romney administration applied the same logic when it instructed justices of the peace in 2004 that the law required them to officiate at same-sex weddings, even if they opposed gay marriage. Justices of the peace who didn't want to perform such marriages were told to resign....
But the governor has at times taken pains to promote tolerance of gays and lesbians. When an administration official was dismissed and asserted that the action was related to her intention to marry her lesbian partner, Romney strongly denied it and noted that several high-ranking officials in his administration were gay.
And in a November speech to the conservative Federalist Society in Washington DC, Romney decried the SJC decision, but also said, ''We should be open and tolerant of different lifestyles."
The applications Romney approved from same-sex couples included at least four from state legislators, including Jarrett T. Barrios...
