President Bush Calls For Gay Marriage Ban
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight: President Bush calls for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization.</s>DOBBS: They've had enough. Fair trade groups form a national alliance to fight the outsourcing of American jobs. Tonight, a battle for this country's oldest environmental organization, anti-population growth, anti-immigration advocates are trying to win control of the Sierra Club. In our special report tonight, "Failing Grades," America now faces a national crisis in math and science education.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we should have a moral outrage that this was allowed to persist for so long.</s>DOBBS: And tonight, I'll be joined by one of this country's leading advocates for education reform, Congressman Chaka Fattah.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Tuesday, February 24. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion is Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Good evening. President Bush today dramatically raised the stakes in the increasingly bitter debate over gay marriage. And President Bush introduced what most political strategists say is the strongest wedge issue of this heated presidential election year. President Bush proposed a constitutional amendment that would ban marriage between partners of the same sex. Mr. Bush said some activist judges and local officials have been making an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage in this country. Senior White House correspondent John King reports -- John.</s>JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Lou, the president now at the center of what is guaranteed to be an emotional, not only legal, but certainly a political debate in this presidential election year. Mr. Bush has been under conservative pressure for months to offer his public views on whether a constitutional amendment is needed to ban gay marriage. Mr. Bush has been studying the issue. And today, in the Roosevelt Room here at the White House, the president said it is OK with him if states want to allow so-called civil unions and give gay couples legal and partnership benefits. But the president said he has now decided a national constitutional amendment is necessary to preserve the institution of marriage as a between a man and a woman.</s>BUSH: America's a free society which limits the role of government in the lives of our citizens. This commitment of freedom, however, does not require the redefinition of one of our most basic social institutions. Our government should respect every person and protect the institution of marriage. There is no contradiction between these responsibilities.</s>KING: Now, back in the 2000 campaign, then Governor Bush said that gay marriage was a state issue. But aides say, he has been watching as these ceremonies take place in San Francisco, thousand of gay marriages allowed, licenses issued in defiance of state law, also court rulings up in Massachusetts and words that other local governments, including a county in New Mexico, might soon allow gay marriages. So the president stepping into this debate, asking Congress to move quickly on a new constitutional amendment. Both Democratic presidential candidates oppose the president on this one, Lou. Mr. Bush says this is necessary. The Democrats say he is pandering to the right wing of his party. And public opinion is split. Two-thirds of American oppose gay marriage, but it is split just about 50/50 down the middle whether the question is whether the issue rises to the level of amending the Constitution. Aides, Lou, tell us the president will not focus on this issue only today, but it will become part of his campaign stump speech in this election year -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: And, John, the Republican Party itself, are they united, the leadership? And Congress in particular, are they united with the president on this issue?</s>KING: It's an interesting question. Some conservatives believe that this issue does not rise or at least not yet rise to the level of needing to propose and work and act on a constitutional amendment. There are several challenges pending to the federal Defense of Marriage Act passed back in the Clinton administration. Many conservatives say, let those cases make their way through the courts first and then only deal with a constitutional amendment if the Defense of Marriage Act is rejected, thrown out by the Supreme Court -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: John, thank you very much. The Democratic presidential candidates, as John just said, strongly criticized the president's announcement today. Senator John Kerry said Americans should be concerned that the president is -- quote -- "toying with the Constitution for political reasons" -- end quote. Senator Kerry does not support gay marriage and he says civil unions are the best way to protect the rights of gays. Both he and Senator John Edwards say it's an issue that should be left to the states.</s>SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do not support -- I am against the president's constitutional amendment on gay marriage. I don't personally support gay marriage myself, but my position has always been that it's for the states to decide and it's for the state of Georgia to decide or any other state to decide. And I think the federal government should honor those decisions.</s>DOBBS: The strong opposition from the Democrats indicates the president may have a tough time convincing Congress to support a constitutional amendment. Some political analysts say the amendment would never win the two-thirds majority required in both the Senate and the House. Congressional correspondent Joe Johns reports.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is the kind of cultural issue that gets Congress all riled up, especially during an election year. For some, it's an appeal to their base voters.</s>SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Marriage has been set up by cultures in the past not to affirm the love of one person of another. If that were the case, mothers and daughters and fathers and sons could be married, if all it was about affirming love between two people.</s>JOHNS: For others, it's an opportunity to blast the administration.</s>SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: The Constitution has often been amended to expand and protect people's rights, never to take away or restrict their rights. By endorsing this shameful proposal, President Bush will go down in history as the first president to try to write bias back into the Constitution.</s>JOHNS: But to pass the Congress and go onto the states for ratification, there are several hurdles. A constitutional amendment needs a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate, which can be tough to achieve. The amendment also have to overcome concerns of some influential Republicans.</s>REP. DAVID DREIER (R), CALIFORNIA: I will say that I'm not supportive of amending the Constitution on this issue. I believe it's a states right issue.</s>JOHNS: Leaders to the House and Senate have said they would like to hold a vote on this issue. But, as previously noted, some of the rank-and-file are simply all over the place. And, for that reason, the leaders say they want to be careful about it -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Joe, the leadership in the House and the Senate, what is the sense there that -- about their enthusiasm for this proposal?</s>JOHNS: Well, it's really a mixed bag, quite frankly, Lou. Congressman Tom DeLay, the majority leader, has said he doesn't want a knee-jerk reaction on this. The problem is, they want to appeal to the conservative base and, at the same time, during an election year, they don't want to chase away social moderates, those swing voters who are so essentially in any election, Lou.</s>DOBBS: Joe, thank you very much. Later here, we'll have more on the legal and political implications of this proposed amendment to the Constitution. I'll be joined by constitutional law scholar Noah Feldman and Ron Brownstein, national political correspondent of "The L.A. Times." And of course, we want to hear your opinion on this issue in tonight's poll. The question: Would you support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in this country, yes or no? Cast your vote at CNN.com/Lou. We'll have the results for you later in the broadcast. Politics of a different nature tonight splitting the nation's largest and oldest environmental group. The lack of a national immigration policy has divided the Sierra Club. Members of the Sierra Club are concerned about the impact of huge numbers of immigrants, both legal and illegal, on the environment. And tonight, a power struggle is under way within the organization. Casey Wian reports from Los Angeles.</s>CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the deserts of Arizona, where illegal aliens leave trash and trample plants, to the freeways of Los Angeles, where rising population threatens to overwhelm the city's infrastructure, it's clear that uncontrolled immigration is hurting the environment. It's the collision of concerns about population growth, including immigration, that is now threatening to tear apart the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest environmental group. Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm is one of a handful of dissident board candidates demanding the Sierra Club take a stand against an immigrant-driven population explosion.</s>RICHARD LAMM, SIERRA CLUB DISSIDENT: Mass immigration is what is happening right now. The United States will stabilize its population by 2040 at the current birth rate. But immigration is going to double the size of America and then double it again. So I'm really very concerned about what the future of America is if we have a half a billion people or a billion people living here.</s>WIAN: In 1998, members voted to remain neutral on the issue of immigration.</s>LARRY FAHN, PRESIDENT, SIERRA CLUB: It's an issue that divides us terribly. And we have always been much more effective working on issues where we're united. And, yes, there has been a small but vocal segment of the Sierra Club 700,000 members that would like to turn our policy around on this.</s>WIAN: Advocates of immigration restrictions in the Sierra Club have become more active. A few have drawn the criticism of at least one civil rights organization.</s>MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: There is no question that hate groups since last fall have been urging their members to join the Sierra Club specifically to try and sway the vote in such a way that the Club will adopt a kind of hard-line anti-immigration position.</s>WIAN: Dissidents deny any connection to hate groups who may support their efforts to win seats on the Sierra Club board. Lamm calls attempts to link them environmental McCarthyism; 13 former Sierra Club presidents warned in a letter to the current board that the 118-year-old organization would be destroyed if the dissidents win.</s>WIAN: Club members begin votes in March, with results announced in April. Dissidents say they only need three more seats to control the 15-member board. And even if they don't succeed this time, they say the Sierra Club will eventually have to confront the effects of immigration on the environment -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Casey, do we have any indication of the outcome of this vote?</s>WIAN: Well, like a lot of elections, it's going to depend on voter turnout. Last year's board election in the Sierra Club only drew 8.7 percent of the Sierra Club's members. So it depends on how many of those new activists turn out and vote in this mail-in election. A minority of the Sierra Club members could easily swing the outcome -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thank you, Casey. Still ahead here, CIA Director George Tenet today issues a stark warning about the terrorist threat to this country. Also, a growing number of foreign countries have banned shipments of American beef and poultry. U.S. farmers are losing and stand to lose billions of dollars. "Failing Grades," our special report this week, American high school students near the bottom of the class in mathematics and science. We'll have that report. And Congressman Chaka Fattah will be our guest. And fighting the export of American jobs to cheap overseas markets, fair trade forces join forces to stop the outsourcing of American jobs -- those stories, a great deal more, still ahead here. Stay with us.