Herman Cain Blasts Obama on Gay Marriage; NOM Questions His Sincerity
Herman Cain’s lambasting of President Barack Obama for no longer defending a federal ban on gay marriage is rhetoric unless the GOP presidential candidate commits to concrete actions, said the National Organization for Marriage.
“We need someone who does not just talk the talk, but walks the walk on marriage,” NOM chairperson Maggie Gallagher said in a statement Saturday. “That is why we asked all the GOP candidates to sign NOM’s 5 point marriage pledge.”
Gallagher asked if Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had signed the pledge, then why Herman Cain hadn’t.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
“President Obama claimed he supported traditional marriage but then failed to follow through. If Herman Cain wants to distinguish his position from President Obama, he should commit to concrete actions, not just rhetoric in support of marriage.”
The NOM statement came after Cain last week criticized the Obama administration’s decision not to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and protects other states from having to recognize such unions from another state. Cain, former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, called the president’s move an impeachable offense.
“That’s a great question and it is a great – it would be a great thing to do but because the Senate is controlled by Democrats we would never be able to get the Senate first to take up that action, because they simply don’t care what the American public thinks. They would protect him and they wouldn’t even bring it up,” On Top Magazine quoted Cain as saying Friday.
“The main stumbling block in terms of getting him impeached on a whole list of things such as trying to pass a health care mandate which is unconstitutional, ordering the Department of Justice to not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act – that’s an impeachable offense right there,” Cain, a minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, said during a conference call with reporters. “The president is supposed to uphold the laws of this nation … and to tell the Department of Justice not to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act is a breach of his oath. … There are a number of things where a case could be made in order to impeach him, but because Republicans do not control the United States Senate, they would never allow it to get off the ground.”
NOM’s marriage pledge includes support of a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and defense of DOMA in court.
In February, Obama said he would “no longer assert its (DOMA) constitutionality in court,” a virtual invitation to activists to challenge it in court. The Justice Department followed suit, calling for the law to be subjected to a more rigorous standard to avoid discrimination against a minority group.
Protectors of traditional marriage see DOMA as a legislation that prevents gay activists from using the recently passed same-sex legislation in New York to challenge laws in other states where gay marriage is banned.
NOM’s pledge also involves appointment of judges and an attorney general who will respect the “original meaning of the Constitution,” appointment of a presidential commission to investigate the alleged harassment of traditional marriage supporters, and support of legislation allowing a ballot question on the issue for voters of the District of Columbia.
