DOMA Author To Keynote LCR Confab

Former GOP Rep. Bob Barr, who is honestly so terribly sorry about authoring that DOMA thing, will keynote the upcoming Log Cabin Republicans convention. Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade:

R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin’s executive director, called Barr’s attendance at the dinner “living proof that Republicans are becoming more inclusive, and doing so for conservative reasons.” “As a freshman member of Congress in 1996, Barr wrote DOMA,” Cooper said. “He has since come to the conclusion that ‘DOMA’s language reflects one-way federalism’ and that the law ‘has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions,’ contrary to the traditional Republican respect for states’ rights, and that DOMA should be repealed.” Passed by Congress in 1996, DOMA prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Both President Clinton, who signed the bill into law, and Barr have since come out in favor of repealing the law. Cooper added that Barr’s new stand on DOMA demonstrates “what a real evolution on marriage looks like” — presumably a dig at President Obama’s remark that his lack of support for same-sex marriage could “evolve” into a endorsement.

I suppose it's mildly interesting to see the LCR embrace a whackadoodle Libertarian like Barr - that seems more like GOProud territory. Incidentally, shortly after Barr introduced the resolution to impeach Bill Clinton, Larry Flynt revealed that Barr had cheated on his second wife with the woman who became his third. Flynt also uncovered proof that the rabidly anti-abortion Barr had paid for his second wife's abortion. Whoopsie.

Other Barr tidbits: Social Security is "immoral," gays shouldn't be allowed to adopt, teachers should lead prayers in public schools, guns for everybody, etc etc.

DOMA Author Says End DOMA

Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, the architect of the Defense of Marriage Act, has written an editorial in the Los Angeles Times calling for its repeal.

I've wrestled with this issue for the last several years and come to the conclusion that DOMA is not working out as planned. In testifying before Congress against a federal marriage amendment, and more recently while making my case to skeptical Libertarians as to why I was worthy of their support as their party's presidential nominee, I have concluded that DOMA is neither meeting the principles of federalism it was supposed to, nor is its impact limited to federal law.

In effect, DOMA's language reflects one-way federalism: It protects only those states that don't want to accept a same-sex marriage granted by another state. Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws -- including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran's benefits -- has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.

Even more so now than in 1996, I believe we need to reduce federal power over the lives of the citizenry and over the prerogatives of the states. It truly is time to get the federal government out of the marriage business. In law and policy, such decisions should be left to the people themselves.

In 2006, when then-Sen. Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he said, "Decisions about marriage should be left to the states." He was right then; and as I have come to realize, he is right now in concluding that DOMA has to go. If one truly believes in federalism and the primacy of state government over the federal, DOMA is simply incompatible with those notions.

Barr ran for president last year as a Libertarian.