Safire Shills for the RNC

Safire writes a column expounding on Kerry's habit of "straddling" complex issues. Of course, its fatuous simplicity rests on the mistaken premise that an acknowledgement of an issue's complexity is an admission of weakness.

Oh, and Safire's "straddles" come to us straight from the RNC's "Who is John Kerry" talking points. (see "KERRY HAS A HISTORY OF CONTRADICTING HIMSELF AND TAKING BOTH SIDES OF AN ISSUE").

About Kerry's position on abortion, he says:

People who are resolutely pro-choice believe that life begins at birth, and that a woman has a right to abort what is taking place in her own body any time during a pregnancy. People who are resolutely pro-life believe that life begins at conception and that aborting that embryo or fetus is akin to murder.

Or you can believe that life begins at conception, but acknowledge that your belief doesn't give you the right to seize control of a woman's body.

About Gay Marriage:

3. He says he is against same-sex marriage, on one hand, and against a constitutional amendment to ban it, on the other. His position: leave it to the states to battle out.

Pollsters show this neat dodge to be popular. But the Supreme Court may well declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act, signed by Clinton, unconstitutional. If not, the Supremes are likely to decide that marriages legal in one state cannot be illegal in any other. To overturn that decision would require amending the Constitution, and the necessary huge majority for that is not there.

I think it is a pretty big stretch to say that the USSC is "likely" to decide that marriages legal in one state are legal in all states. Standards for marriage have long been left to state control.