Word of the speech given by Representative Lincoln Davis in the House of Representatives has been shooting around the Internet today. Congressman Davis, a right wing Democrat from Tennessee, gave a speech saying that he would support the Republicans’ constitutional amendment to “protect” marriage by pulling away marriage rights away from millions of couples… only the amendment doesn’t go far enough. Representative Davis called upon the amendment to be expanded to truly protect marriage, by outlawing divorce and adultery.
Was he serious, or sarcastic?
Watch this movie of part of his speech. It’s damn hard to tell.
Progressive blogs have been trying to figure it out all afternoon. The trouble is that, although he’s a Democrat, Lincoln Davis votes so often with the right wing fringe of the Republican Party that it is completely plausible that he would, in fact, vote for legislation outlawing divorce and adultery. Congressman Davis has voted for an amendment to a bill that would have made it legal for government-funded organizations to fire people for no other reason than that they don’t belong to the same religion as their boss. He’s voted to take away the power of judges to stop right wing groups from violating people’s constitutional rights. He’s voted in favor of absurd flag burning bans.
For the legislation that we’ve tracked over the last year and a half, Lincoln Davis earned a progressive voting score of only 13 percent, but got a right wing voting score of 58 percent.
Eventually, someone checked with Lincoln Davis’s office, and confirmed that when Representative Davis said he wanted to outlaw divorce and adultery, he was only trying to make the point that Republicans are not really doing much to defend marriage. It’s a shame that Lincoln Davis’s own voting record is so much in league with the Republican right wing that many people assumed he was in earnest.
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Update:
It looks like I got the end of this story wrong. Some people had claimed to have contacted Lincoln Davis’s office and found out that it was not a serious comment. On the other hand, some people at Think Progress said they got official confirmation that Lincoln Davis was very, very serious.
It also turns out that, according to the official roll call on this vote, Lincoln Davis actually voted for the Republican amendment that would have taken away marriage rights from millions of American couples.
It looks like Lincoln Davis really has gone off the deep end.
As I mentioned in the 34 traitors thread ( http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2006/07/18/34-antigay-democrats/ ), this official role call ( http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll378.xml ) seems to indicate that Davis was serious. On another blog, someone claims that they called his office and were told that he is serious about Divorce being a felony ( http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/18/outlaw-marriage-divorce/ comment #80). Perhaps he didn’t discuss this with his aides before saying it, and some of them are shooting from the hip, but I won’t feel confident that we know his true intent until I see a written statement from his office.
Is there anybody running in his district who makes a little more consistent sense for progressives?
Once again we see that the Democratic party is all over the map and that, if they win back some seats next November, it isn’t necessarily the case that progressive causes will once again get Amerikkka back on track. With people like Lieberman and this nut case as examples, who knows what kind of road we’ll head down if the Dems take back the Congress. Let’s hope for the best.
Rep. Davis was NOT serious. He was making a point about the hypocrisy of the bill. He did vote for it, but that is not to say he meant the ironies of his speech literally. He represents a really rural, conservative district (previously represented by a neo-con) that practically demands a yes vote on passage. His speech was simply to highlight the larger issue- gays don’t threaten our marriages. We threaten our marriages.
And- talk to his Press Secretary- he’ll confirm it. I asked.
Cristine (Capital Nut) —
Why on earth did he vote for it if he thinks gays don’t threaten marriage? And can you get his press secretary to give us that in writing? they could post it here: http://www.house.gov/lincolndavis/pressreleases2006.htm
Yeah, that would be nice.
Oh, and can we get a “Civil Rights” or more specific “sex rights” tag to put on this thread? I like to follow the marriage issue pretty closely compared to some other issues, and there doesn’t seem to be consistent tagging of it hereabouts.
Vynce,
You can use the search box at the upper right if you’d like… just search “Lincoln Davis”.
Capitol Nut,
There is nothing about a rural district that DEMANDS that a Democrat take the consistently Republican stands against liberty that Lincoln Davis does. If Lincoln Davis really thinks that way, he ought to just switch parties and be honest about it, and stop dragging the name of Democrat through the mud. This man has a Medieval mind.