Just this week, for example, a county commissioner in eastern Pennsylvania found to oppose public benefits to same-sex partners. “Next it could be giving money out to people’s pets or whatever,” he said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) has pursued similar arguments. In August, for example, his administration equated marriage licenses for same-sex couples with marriage licenses for “12-year-olds.” The Republican governor later apologized, but he apparently didn’t learn any lessons from the controversy.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has compared the marriage of same-sex couples to the marriage of a brother and sister during an appearance on a morning TV news show. The Republican made the remark Friday on WHP-TV in Harrisburg when asked about a statement his lawyers made in an August court filing.
Asked about the comparison his legal team made, the Republican said this morning he thinks “a much better analogy would have been brother and sister, don’t you?”
If you watch the above clip, it looks as if the governor is smirking. Maybe Corbett thinks was being clever. If so, he’s mistaken. It’s tempting to think the governor will need to issue another apology, but at this point, it would be neither sincere nor believable. Instead, maybe Corbett should wake up and realize it’s the 21st century — and bigotry isn’t funny.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
