It’s pretty clear that the christianist right wouldn’t know (or tell) the truth if it bit them on their holier-than-thou asses. While Lying for the lord is as traditionally Mormon as having a rumpus room full of backup wives, who would have imagined the Mormon’s new found allies among the extremist religious reich and the Ratzi Crime Family would so quickly adopt and master the art.
Now, vis-à-vis the Perry v Schwarzenegger Prop 8 trial, we learn the latest tactic from the lying liars for the lord is stalling for the lord. While nobody’s certain what the long-range objective is, my guess is they’re buying time to set up a case for a mistrial based on witness intimidation, because several of their star homo-hating witnesses like San Diego pastors Jim Garlow and Miles McPherson showed their true color (spine-free yellow) when they attempted to worm out of testifying (find PDFs of their court filings at the links).
Now we learn, via the Associated Press’ Lisa Leff, that the decision in the trial on the constitutionality of Prop 8 will likely be delayed thanks to the theocrat’s latest legal maneuvering:
Evidence skirmish could delay end of Prop 8 trial
SAN FRANCISCO — An attempt by civil rights groups to keep sponsors of California’s same-sex marriage ban from obtaining internal campaign documents could delay a verdict in the federal trial on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, lawyers on both sides said Tuesday.
Attorneys warned of the possible bottleneck during a hearing where a federal judge was asked to overrule a magistrate who ordered organizations that fought the 2008 ban to turn over memos and e-mails to lawyers defending the voter-approved measure.
[ ... ]
Three groups that opposed Proposition 8 are challenging U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero’s order earlier this month requiring them to hand over all documents “that contain, refer or relate to arguments for or against Proposition 8,” with the exception of private communications between their core leaders.
The hypocrisy of the radical religious reich will never cease to amaze. When the shoe was on the other foot and those who toiled — and spent huge amounts of Mormon money — to eliminate the existing right of California gay and lesbian couples to marry were asked to produce their internal documents, they bristled and labeled the order a “fishing expedition.”
Brian Brown of the National Organization for Opposite Marriage, in a missive dated 12 February 2010, wrote:
The San Francisco Chronicle broke the news that Judge Vaughn Walker is gay. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but here’s the really big indisputable fact the mainstream media should be focusing on: Judge Walker has been incredibly biased in his rulings from start to finish.
He ordered an expensive trial over the objections of Protect Marriage, in a case where frankly the issues are primarily matters of law. He further ruled that the private and personal feelings and attitudes of Protect Marriage folks and their campaign consultants–things by definition never communicated to voters–were properly subjected to subpoena power. This was a fishing expedition of a major order: Judge Walker tried to give gay-marriage advocates access to more than a million emails by ordinary Californians who worked on the campaign, and also to internal campaign strategy memos. (The Ninth Circuit rapped his knuckles on that one.) He refused to play fair by ordering opponents of Prop 8 to open up their strategy, too. Worst of all, he broke all the rules to try to get this case televised, over the objections of Protect Marriage (who are the defendants in this case).
(emphasis: mine)
And what exactly are the anti-gays fishing for? Well, kids, it ain’t exactly plastic Jesus fish:
A federal appeals court eventually ruled that exchanges among top campaign officials about strategy and messaging could be withheld, but information disseminated more broadly was fair game in the trial.
Jesse Panuccio, a lawyer for Proposition 8 supporters, told Walker that it was only reasonable to require opponents of the ban to abide by the same disclosure requirements as supporters.
Plaintiffs have tried to prove that outlawing same-sex marriage serves no legitimate purpose, and the defense wants to see if their private conversations showed they thought otherwise during the campaign, Panuccio said.
Of course, at this point, asking the No-on-8 side (the good guys) to produce their internal documents serves no useful purpose other than to delay the inevitable. It’s a ploy, a strategy, a time-wasting tactic. It’s nothing more than a Hail Mary that consists of stalling for the lord while the theocons attempt to come up with some other strategy to deny gay and lesbian Americans the full rights of citizenship.
