My First Obama Gripe and Steve Schmidt Supports Gay Marriage and Warns Against a "Religious Party."

Overall I am very pleased with the job that President Obama is doing and am enjoying the Republicans squirm to try and find their footing as the American political paradigm is shifting toward a more socially liberal society via gay marriage, pot legalization efforts, abortion and immigration issues.

Republicans are quickly being outnumbered by minority voters--Dems get 3/4 of the minority vote because the GOP hasn't had the best record on minority rights whether it is blacks, latinos, gays or women.

And these "minorities" will soon be the majority in America and if the Republicans don't do something they will lose the Latino vote for generations just like the youth. The longer they cling to anti-immigrant policies and antiquated views on social issues (gay marriage, pot legalization) the smaller and smaller the party will get. In a lot of ways the Republican party has become the party of the white, southern, undereducated, male, Christian and you can't win a modern election with that narrow of support.

However, like I said I am disappointed with President Obama's signals that he wouldn't prosecute any Bush officials for water boarding (which was an offense we prosecuted and even executed Japanese officials for doing after WW2). I'm not for executing anyone but I do believe Obama owes it to the Founding Father's, we the people, the world and to our image and reputation as a law abiding, Democratic society to investigate anyone involved. If that leads to former President Bush then so be it--Everyone in America has to obey the law and presidents shouldn't be exempt. Otherwise it sets a horrible precedence that future presidents can refer to as defense of future torture or other crime.

Now, I heard breaking news just earlier that Obama might be changing his views on this a bit by leaving the door open for prosecuting those who authored the memos but not those who were following those orders (i.e. the grunts in the field). That's a bit better but I think even those who followed those orders should be investigated as well. They might not be found guilty in the end but the rule of law demands we investigate.

Anyone with a moral conscience should have resigned from their service than torture detainees. They might be told it was o.k. from above but a person knows in their heart if what they are doing is unjustifiable and excessive. The law is the law and we didn't let the Nazis go at the Nuremberg trials because of their defense of, "I was just following orders."Meanwhile, another Republican has come out for gay marriage recognizing that unless the party does so then they will disappear into history. Steve Schmidt was John McCain's campaign manager and also served former President George W. Bush. He is seen as a heavy hitter in the Republican party so his words carry even more weight:

"If you reject [gay marriage] on religious grounds, I respect that," he said. "I respect anyone's religious views. However, religious views should not inform the public policy positions of a political party because... when it is a religious party, many people who would otherwise be members of that party are excluded from it because of a religious belief system that may be different.

"If a party is seen as anti-gay than that is injurious to its candidates in states like California, Oregon or Washington or New Jersey or New York, increasingly even in states like Virginia and the mid-south," he said.

TPJ: Thus, so much for standing for religious freedom. Schmidt went further went on to say that religion is alienating people from the party and could lead as well to the death of the party:

"If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party," Schmidt declared. "And in a free country, a political party cannot be viable in the long term if it is seen as a sectarian party."

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