Former New York Governor George Pataki talked by phone with Iowa political reporters this afternoon, a prelude to Pataki's speech tomorrow night in Des Moines ,part of a lecture series sponsored by the American Future Fund.
During the conference call, Pataki was asked about the gay marriage issue as New York's current governor wants to legalize it in the Empire State.
"I happen to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. That was the law in New York when I was there and it's still the law today and I think it is the appropriate law," Pataki said,.
"But I think there is another issue here and that is the whole question of judicial activism…The governor is proposing legislation, it's passed the state assembly — that's the way to make policy determinations. You want to have the elected representatives of the people vote when you're making important policy decisions. You don't want — in most cases — unelected judges, unaccountable judges declare by dictate what they believe policy should be. When that happens, we have removed the elected representatives of the people from their primary role which is to determine policy and pass legislation.
"So on the issue itself I think marriage is between a man and a woman and should continue to be between a man and a woman. On what happened when a court determines otherwise…whether you agree with the decision, whether agree with the action they took or not, it is wrong for the judiciary to overstep its appropriate role and to take away from the elected officials their right to set the policy of the state and our country."
A follow up question: do you think this is an issue which is a winning one for Republicans across the country? A key aide to Senator McCain's presidential campaign has suggested it's an issue Republicans consider distancing themselves from.
"You've got to believe what you believe and stand on principle and I'll defer to the political consultants, the advisors, the experts, the pundits as to whether the position is a good one or a bad one, but I happen to believe that marriage has been and should remain between a man and a woman in this country," Pataki said.
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
To force citizens to perform gay marriages in violation of conscience is terrorism and mocks the American people.
“This noble motto … is emblematic of the moral sentiments of Iowans from the banks of the Missouri to the waters of the Mighty Mississippi. … As citizens of the State of Iowa and thus, the United States, we enjoy the protections of this right guaranteed in the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions. This right of conscience protects individuals against coercion by the state authority, and serves as the first line of defense against the cancer of tyranny.”
So who, in God’s name, dares to take away that freedom — dearly bought – and call himself a public servant of the American people?
Much is determined at the bench today, that if put to a vote, would fail.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate –we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. “