Mar 12, 2004  |  By: ADRIAN BRUNE  | COMMENTS     

The Log Cabin Republicans this week launched a $1 million TV advertising campaign in swing states targeting President Bush’s support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The 30-second spot opens with Vice President Dick Cheney, framed in grayscale, speaking clearly and deliberately during his 2000 vice presidential debate about freedom and his belief that people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they choose.

After several images of gay couples and past civil rights battles, Cheney appears on the screen again and states the position he took gay marriageat that time: “I don’t think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area.” Two words, “We Agree,” follow Cheney’s remarks.

The ad campaign launched on Thursday was designed to be simple and powerful, said Patrick Guerriero, LCR’s executive director. But it was also meant to show the duplicity of the Bush administration’s recent backing of a federal marriage amendment in basic shades of black and white.

“The radical right wanted a culture war. They’ve got it now,” Guerriero said during a news conference announcing the campaign. “This is our line in the sand. We were forced by a sense of history and responsibility to respond immediately and harshly.

“Our membership demanded it, and our integrity demanded it. The exclusion and discrimination embodied in this amendment violates the principles upon which the Republican Party is founded.”

Log Cabin’s decision to voice its opinion so forcefully and publicly against one of President Bush’s election-year initiatives comes in stark contrast to the group’s late endorsement of him in 2000. The gay rights group initially endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the primaries and aired radio ads critical of Bush in California. That opposition led to Bush’s refusal to meet with LCR leaders after he locked up the nomination.

LCR members say they cautioned the Bush administration against sanctioning the federal amendment, but once Bush and Cheney officially backed a federal marriage amendment, the gay Republican organization said it needed to take measures to keep the party “on the right side of history,” Guerriero said.

In addition to airing the Cheney ad, Log Cabin officials said they are in the process of delivering 1,000 copies of the commercial to the doors of key Republicans across the country, including GOP congressmen, governors and members of the Republican National Committee.

TV ads a first for LCR
The large-scale effort by Log Cabin to raise awareness surrounding the marriage amendment issue marks the first time the group has aired television ads in its 27-year history, according to Mark Mead, Log Cabin’s political director. As a result, he said the group sacrificed funds reserved for buttressing the campaigns of Republican candidates in the general election — including Bush’s.

Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, when asked if his group is being disloyal to President Bush, said, ‘I believe loyalty means having the courage to tell someone when they are wrong.’ (File photo by Luis Gomez)

Guerriero said the LCR board is considering breaking with another of its traditions by recommending a candidate outside its party for president. Presumed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s platform on gay marriage — the support of state amendments with a caveat for civil unions — may offer a more palatable, and moderate, option for the organization, according to Guerriero.

“President Bush’s decision to use the bully pulpit truly jeopardized our endorsement of him,” Guerriero said. “If this party wants to listen to the advice of Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, I would remind them that all three are failed presidential candidates. I don’t understand why Karl Rove would take counsel from three failed presidential candidates.”

Guerriero’s strong assertions at a news conference Wednesday seemed to contrast sentiments he expressed in the New York Times on Monday. Guerriero reiterated in an interview with the paper that Bush’s support for the federal amendment has imperiled LCR’s endorsement, but he added, “Our members are intensely conservative. We are not going to let one moment make us run away scared.”

Mead likened Bush’s proclamation on the amendment to a kick in the stomach, but LCR has already backed off from demanding the GOP embrace full marriage rights for gays. Guerriero claimed that the group already knew the Bush campaign opposed gay marriage, but in the coming weeks, it “wanted to know what the president was for.”

The White House did not respond by press time to requests for an interview regarding the LCR ads.

Bush’s position on the ...