Andrew swooned, but Charles Pierce isn't the least bit impressed by the pro-equality amicus brief that has now been signed more than one hundred "prominent Republicans," as every news report describes them. Among the signers: Jon Huntsman, Christine Todd Whitman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Meg Whitman, William Weld, David A. Stockman, and James B. Comey. Says Pierce:
Seriously, is there one person on that list of serious influence in the Republican party, and it's not Huntsman, god knows, who is a person of serious influence only in the Republican party that exists in the heads of the people in various green rooms. Bill Weld, god love him, has been out of public life since 1996 and Jane Swift wasn't a "well-known" Republican in Massachusetts even when she was governor. Christine Todd Whitman is an influential Republican? Since when? You might as well be talking about William Seward.
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But the coverage of the brief is more interesting than the brief itself because it is another item in the continuing attempt by the elite political media to find a sane Republican party out there somewhere, struggling to be born. Jon Huntsman changes his mind on marriage equality! Chris Christie is Not Invited to CPAC! (Of course, a real sign of Republican reform would be if influential Republicans en masse decided to reject invitations to share the podium with the likes of Allen West.) The Very Fact Of Marco Rubio! The ringworm in the whole business is to be found deep in the bowels of the Times story, right after they summon up the shade of Jane Swift.
"...suggests that once Republicans are out of public life they feel freer to speak out against the party's official platform, which calls for amending the Constitution to define marriage as "the union of one man and one woman."
No duh, as the kidz say. You can support marriage equality as a Republican as long as you're not presently running for office as a Republican, which rather mitigates against your being able to change the nature of a political party, the putative job of which is to elect people to office in order to carry out certain policies.
