John Kline Opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment Before He Voted for it

Bush supporters won't be happy when they read this, especially since I'm certain that 97.3% of those in MN2 who voted for Bush also voted for Kline (the rest figured that once they'd voted for Bush, voting for Kline was redundant). While different people opposed Kerry for different reasons, there is certainly a widely held perception that Kerry lost because Bush was able to successfully hang the title 'flip-flopper' on him --- even though by and large, Bush's allegations of Kerry's poll-driven policy-making process were untrue.

Well, it turns out Kline is a bit indecisive himself. In March 2004, I wrote my congressman a letter expressing my strong opposition to the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have constitutionally mandated that states could only sanction and recognize marriages between two people of opposite genders. I was pleasantly surprised by Kline's response:

"It may surprise you to learn that we are in agreement on this issue. While we may not agree on the details of the issue, I concur that this question is best left to individual states. I do not support hastily amending the Constitution, and thus do not support an amendment for this issue at this time."

Wow! Indeed I was surprised that a 25-year Marine Corps veteran who wants to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill would express his opposition to an amendment which was, at the time, priority number one for social conservatives (though we don't hear too much about it now --- funny how that works). It gave me a grudging respect for the man.

Of course 6 months later, Kline voted for it anyway.