Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Amendment CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 His position was quickly de nounced by liberals. Democrats accused Bush of tinkering with a document that is the bedrock of American democracy to divert election year attention away from his' record — an allegation the White House denied. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., yho hopes to run against Bush in this year’s pres idential election, said: “I believe President Bush is wrong.” “All Americans should be con cerned when a president who is in political trouble tries to tam per with the Constitution of the United States at the start of his re-election campaign,” said Kerry, who opposes gay marriage and will oppose the amendment if it reaches the Senate floor. Anthony Romero, director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said amending the Constitution to deny homosexu als the same rights that others take for granted “just isn’t very American.” A major gay Republican group, the Log Cabin Republicans, accused Bush of “pandering to the radical right” and “writing discrimination into the Constitution.” The American Center for Law and Justice, which focuses on family and religious issues, ap plauded Bush’s announcement, saying it “serves as a critical cat alyst to energize and organize those who will work diligently to ensure that marriage remains an institution between one man and one woman.” Bush noted actions in Massachusetts where four judges on the highest court have indicated they will order the is suance of marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender in May of this year. In San Francisco, city officials have issued thousands of mar riage licenses, to people of the same sex. This, Bush said, is con trary to state law. A county in New Mexico also has issued same-sex marriage licensee. Bush said. “Unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local offi cials — all of which adds to un certainty,” Bush said. The conservative wing of his party has been anxious for Bush to follow up his rhetoric on the issue with action. In recent weeks, Bush has repeatedly said he was “troubled” by recent rul ings on the issue, but stopped short of endorsing a constitu tional amendment. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush be lieves that legislation for such an amendment, submitted by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R Colo., meets his principles in protecting the “sanctity of mar riage” between men and wom en. But Bush did not specifically embrace any particular piece of legislation in his announce ment. Primary CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 r remarks of the campaign. Edwards reminded the president that the race for the Democratic nomination is not over. “Not so fast, George Bush," said Kerry’s sole remaining major ri val. “You don’t get to decide who our nominee is." Taken together, the exchanges underscored the state of the race for the White House —■ Bush able to concentrate his energy on the general election, with Kerry eager to do the same and Edwards strug gling to sustain his own candidacy. Kerry, held a large and growing lead in the Democratic delegate chase, with 632 in the Associated Press count to 190 for Edwards, go ing into the night’s three contests. A total of 61 delegates were at stake. Officials printed 5,000 extra bal lots in Salt Lake City to accom modate the demand. “Three blocks from Temple Square and there’s a giant line of Democrats," said Blake Sarlow, waiting to vote. “It’s the craziest thing.” A day after targeting Democrats, Bush used the White House as the backdrop for an ap peal for passage of a constitutional amendment banning gay mar riages, a move certain to please his conservative Republican base. “A few judges and local author ities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization," said the president, referring to a recent court opinion in Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts and a decision by city officials in San Francisco to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Both Kerry and Edwards promptly accused the president of playing politics with the Constitution — a charge the White House denied. The two Democrats said they oppose gay marriage, but would vote against the amend ment if it is brought before the Senate. Neither Democratic contender campaigned in any of the three states, preferring to spend time and resources in the 10 delegate rich states on next week’s ballot. Increasingly, Edwards looked to Georgia and Ohio as well as up state portions of New York to slow Kerry’s rush toward the nomina tion. Both men have committed to large advertising campaigns in the three states. Officials said dur ing the day that Edwards had in creased his commitment in Ohio, even though Kerry was continu ing to outspend him there. The Massachusetts senator was introducing a new commercial for use in Ohio and parts of New York, focused on the Republican in the White House. The commer cial calls Bush’s economic policy “an astonishing failure” and promises to protect American jobs. “We need to be on the side of America’s workers," Kerry says in the ad. “George Bush won’t do it. I will.” The ad was released one day af ter Kerry said he would run a clean TV ad campaign if Bush’s re election team promised to do the same. The president’s campaign is expected to begin running tele vision commercials next week. In his comments to reporters, Kerry was dismissive of Bush’s criticisms. “Last night was almost a fanta sy speech about a world that doesn’t exist for most Americans,” he said. “The president talked about a prosperity that millions of Americans are not seeing, feeling or living." On Monday night, Bush, with out naming Kerry, ridiculed him as a politician who has held op posing positions on tax cuts, NAF TA, the war with Iraq and more. Bush also sought to cast the election as a choice between “keeping the tax relief that’s mov ing the economy forward, or putting the burden of higher taxes back on the American people." “It’s a choice between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence, or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger," the president said. Jobs were a recurring refrain as Edwards and Kerry cam paigned during the day, the front runner in economically distressed northeast Ohio, and his pursuer in Georgia and Texas. “Let the president come to Ohio and give a speech to the workers of Ohio about their real lives," said Kerry, who said the state has lost 270,000 jobs since Bush’s inaugu ration. “Let the workers of Ohio hear from the president about how ' he’s going to help them keep then jobs or find new jobs in an econo my that’s not creating jobs as fast as they are disappearing." On Wednesday, in Toledo, Kerry was picking up his latest endorsement, this one from former astronaut and retired Sen. John Glenn. In addition, he said Bush had presided over a huge expansion in the deficit as well as a loss in jobs. Accusing the president of trying to change the subject, he said, “he can’t talk about making the world really safer because he’s left our allies and our relationships dis appointed all around the world. Electric industry wants grid improvement * BY MALIA RULON THE ASSOCIATED 1‘HESfi WASHINGTON - Electricity in dustry officials said Tuesday they have taken several steps to im prove grid reliability since last summer’s blackout, but mandato ry standards still are needed. The North American Electric Reliability Council has begun au diting the most critical areas of the nation’s power grid and plans to better disclose violations of relia bility standards by grid operators. Still, the rules are voluntary and regional monitoring groups lack the authority to enforce compli ance. “A key finding of NERC’s in vestigation that is of greatest con cern to me was that existing NERC reliability standards were violat ed, and that this contributed di rectly to the blackout,” Michehl Gent, president of the industry sponsored council, told members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Chairman Pete Domenici, R N.M., urged senators to pass a re worked energy bill now under consideration in the Senate. That bill would empower the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, whose engineers will participate in the industry audits, to enforce grid reliability rules and to hand down punishments. A larger, more expensive ener gy bill has been stalled since last year, prompting some Democrats to accuse Senate Republicans of using the need for mandatory standards as an excuse to get the energy bill passed. “Don’t you think it’s somewhat irresponsible not to pass the reli ability standards if that is in fact the only standards that we can pass?” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. “People are holding this reliability bill hostage.” Domenici dismissed that idea. “We will get to the point where we will pass the whole bill or we start considering pieces and I don’t think we are to that point,” he said. Gent warned that as the mem ory fades of the blackout — which left more than 50 million people in the dark as it spread in seconds from Ohio to New York and parts of Canada — the issue of grid reli ability may get less attention. “With the passage of time, pri orities will shift,” he said. “Having the reliability legislation in place will make sure that we can maintain the proper focus on reliability on an ongoing, sus tainable basis.” Jim Glotfelty, director of the Energy Department’s office of elec tric transmission and distribu tion, said the blackout happened because recommendations from prior incidents weren’t acted on. This time, Congress needs to pass mandatory reliability provisions that are included in the energy bill. “Nobody wants to be the cause of the next blackout,” he said. In the meantime, organizations charged with monitoring electric ity transmission say that while a they wait for Congress to act, g they’re investing in new monitor ing equipment, training drills and emergency communication plans. I Margaret Live@ the Koger Center ■' -v’ •• ■ ■ -. . '1 I $5 student ticket w/ valid ID @ info desk starting 2/16 All tickets reserved seating. Those who need special assistance call 777-7500 openS@7:30pm $20 General Public Tickets available at ail Capital ticket outlets starting 2/23 SHOW MAY CONTAIN OFFENSIVE SUBJECT MATTER v W V