[Overpaid Slacker]

jc -
I'm not convinced that the extreme right wing holds the Republicans hostage. That canard has been used since Nixon to scare middle-of-the-roaders (and unsophisticated Lefties {insert joke here}) into distrust of anything Republican.

This is the same ol' stuff we've been fed for years. Lib's have the means to have their positions portrayed as "mainstream" and, more insidiously, to have most anything Republican decried as "conservative" as though it's necessarily wrong if it is.

As far as the gay marriage issue, I personally couldn't care less, pro or con. So I'll say w/o a dog in this particular fight, that most of the polling I've seen indicates that 55+% of Americans are against gay marriage. Now, is this (or should it be) a poll-driven initiative by Republicans? I don't think it is -- I think it's a matter of principle.

But the point is that it's not some radically "conservative" idea if a huge percentage (or even let's say a third) of the American people support the notion. The discussion of the topic has been largely hijacked by the inaccurate characterization of the issue as "conservative".

JP