Nov 03, 2006  |  By: RYAN LEE  | COMMENTS     

President George Bush addressed a large Republican campaign rally in Statesboro, Ga., on Monday, invoking last week’s New Jersey Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling to rile up conservative voters for next week’s elections.

In a speech that touched on Medicare, border control, public education and the war in Iraq, it was Bush’s rebuking of gay marriage that earned the president what the Associated Press described as “by far his most sustained applause at a rally of 5,000 people.”

“For decades, activist judges have tried to redefine America by court order,” Bush said. “Just this last week in New Jersey, another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the institution of marriage. We believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and should be defended.”

According to the Associated Press, “even children jumped to their feet alongside their parents to cheer and clap for nearly 30 seconds — an eternity in political speechmaking.”

Bush’s invocation of the New Jersey high court ruling is one of the latest attempts by conservatives to use the same-sex marriage issue to rally their base for the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

The president began blasting the New Jersey Supreme Court in his political speeches the day after its Oct. 25 ruling that the state legislature has 180 days to amend the state marriage code to include same-sex couples, or establish a parallel system that confers all of the rights and benefits of marriage upon gay and lesbian couples.

But a CNN poll taken in the days after the New Jersey decision was announced indicates the ruling did not alter the race for a U.S. Senate seat in the Garden State, which many consider to be a tossup. U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) continues to lead Republican challenger Thomas Kean 51-44 percent among likely voters, according to the poll, despite Kean’s attempts to make the ruling an issue in the race.

“I still believe that marriage is and should be between one man and one woman and I would support an amendment to the state constitution reaffirming that definition,” Kean said in a statement released after the ruling. “The eyes of the country are on New Jersey and the people deserve to hear from my opponent on this issue.”

Menendez has said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman, but he does not believe state and federal constitutions should be used to take away rights.

Gay rights activists hope Republicans have gone to the gay marriage well one too many times.

“I think the American public are tired of extremists trying to focus on taking away the rights of their gay and lesbian citizens, and they realize there are more important issues at stake next week,” said Marty Rouse, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign.

Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, the gay legal group that challenged New Jersey’s marriage laws on behalf of seven gay and lesbian couples, sent an open letter to Bush accusing him of “undermining the credibility of a branch of government that we all rely upon to provide us with access to justice.”

“Our time-tested system of checks and balances between the three branches of government is one that emerging democratic governments look to as a model,” wrote Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart. “When you attack the judiciary, you are attacking the strength of our democracy. I urge you to stop disparaging our courts.”

The New Jersey marriage ruling also came as residents in eight states — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin — prepare to vote on whether to amend their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage.

Conservative supporters of the gay marriage bans are using the New Jersey ruling to mobilize voters in each of the states facing a ballot measure, said Eric Stanley, chief counsel of the Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal group.

“There’s a renewed sense of urgency,” Stanley said. “I’ve been to a few of the pro-marriage amendment rallies since the New Jersey ruling came down and every single one has mentioned the New Jersey ruling as a reason people need to get out to the polls and vote in favor of the marriage amendment.

“The voters we’ve been talking to kind of see this as, if it can happen in New Jersey, it can happen anywhere,” Stanley added. “There is a sense that people want to take this out of the realm of the judiciary and put it into the constitution.”

Gay activists discount the New Jersey ruling influencing any of the ballot initiatives.

“I think there’ll be ...