Jeff Crank Show, Frank McNulty, 5/12/2012
Station: AM 740 KVOR
Show: Jeff Crank Show
Guest: McNulty
Link: http://www.kvor.com/showdj.asp?DJID=48714#podcast
Date: 5/12/2012
Topics: Civil Unions, Governor Hickenlooper, House Majority Leader, Same-sex marriage, Democrats,
JEFF CRANK: So, you guys had quite a little week, this last week. Let me just first of all say, this isn’t about civil unions, this is about gay marriage. The bill that is before the legislature really is gay marriage without calling it that. Would you agree with that?
FRANK McNULTY: Yeah, this is same sex marriage, and it doesn’t matter what the democrats decide to call it or what public relations effort they want to put around it in, what their trying to convince the state legislature to adopt and what they’re trying to sell to the people of Colorado is same sex marriage and I think that Coloradoans are smarter than that.
JEFF CRANK: How many times in the bill does it call the partner a “spouse”?
FRANK McNULTY: It is … at every place in the statute where you have statutes pertaining to married couples, it puts in same-sex couples and when you do that, when you set the two side by side, it’s absolutely clear what their intent is here and what they’ve done is create same-sex marriage if this bill were to pass.
JEFF CRANK: And the idea is to get this put into law and of course somebody would challenge it because it would violate the constitution of the state of Colorado which the citizens of Colorado amended in 2006 with the marriage amendment … They want that judicial activism to kick in, which has happened all over the United States of America… Isn’t that their overall strategy, you think?
FRANK McNULTY: Yeah, and I think it was … the best analogy was, or the best few words on this was if this Senate bill 2 passes it is same-sex marriage on the installment plan. They pass this Senate Bill 2 they set up these, these… something equal to marriage, same sex marriage. And then the court challenge comes, and the court challenge is attacking traditional marriage and Colorado’s amendment to our state constitution that protects marriage as being between one man and one woman. And I got to tell you Coloradoans support marriage between one man and one woman andto have this attack so late in the session, and then to have Governor Hickenlooper call a special session dedicated to passing same-sex marriage, I think he has really started to show his stripes here and we’re learning a lot more about this guy when it comes to divisive social issues.
[Jeff Crank thinks that Obama operatives are driving this push, coordinating this stuff, directing Hick to call this SpecSession]
FRANK McNULTY: I know that there were communications between President Obama’s top political operatives here in Colorado, and I certainly think that it’s more than coincidence that the Democrats stopped working with us on Wednesday afternoon to try and figure out how to work out some of the remaining issues because they needed cover to help move forward with the White House’s plan here in Colorado. And, you know, that’s unfortunate. I get that’s what they needed to do but we could have gotten done what we had to get done and avoided this special session just for the sake of same-sex marriages. But that’s what Governor Hickenlooper decided to do, and under our state Constituion he has the ability to call us back in, so he’ll call us back in and we’ll have the same fight all over again.
JEFF CRANK: [What would SB – 2 provide to Coloradans that they can’t do now under CO law?]
FRANK McNULTY: There are very few things under current law that same-sex couples can’t do. And really, all the reasons that the bill’s proponents give as why Senate Bill 2 is needed are just excuses to pass same-sex marriage in Colorado that’s their goal, that’s where they’re going, and that’s what they need to do, and that’s the plan.
JEFF CRANK: Right now, can’t two homosexual people enter into some legal agreement to pass on property?
FRANK McNULTY: Oh, sure! All of these things, hospital visititation, passing of property upon death, all of these things can be taken care of under current law. What same-sex couples don’t have is same-sex marriage. And that’s what the Democrats and Governor Hickenlooper are pushing at the capitol now.
JEFF CRANK: They just want to call it something different. Because if they call it marriage then it gets defeated by voters. Is that right?
FRANK McNULTY: Right. This is a public relations effort that they’ve undertaken to change the name of it, and I’ve got to tell you, pretty smart on their part. They’re basically doing what voters rejected just a few years ago, calling it a different name and all of a sudden it doesn‘t have the same feel about it. But Senate Bill 2, the bill that was killed last Tuesday night, is on its face and in its content, same-sex marriage.
JEFF CRANK: [Some supporters of certain candidates (El Paso County) last week saying some troubling stuff, trying to imply that somehow Amy Stephens was supportive of civil unions. You guys put your political lives on the line… to stop this bill, and you stand with Coloradans… and anyone to say anything else is laughable. I hope you fight just as hard in the special session]
FRANK McNULTY: Well, thank you. And it’s absolutely true that Amy Stephens was the rock that we came back to throughout the debate. It wasn’t easy, and there were times when the pressure was great, when you have advocates for SB-2 piling into the gallery and you’re looking up there wondering what’s going to happen next. And Amy is so strong in her faith, and is abs. rock solid, and she just has a measure of calm about her in crisis and that’s one of the things that we relied on. And our goal is to head into this special session… This is Governor Hickenlooper’s special session. He sets the agenda for it, he decided that we were going to come back and debate same-sex marriage once again, and so we will do that because it is part of his call, but I think that the people of Colorado will see it… 24,000 dollars a day to come back.
JEFF CRANK: Geez, oh man. 24,000 dollars a day so that we can debate same-sex marriage which the voters have already rejected in 2006.
FRANK McNULTY: Right!
JEFF CRANK: Yeah. So how much could that add up to? 24,000 dollars a day, that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars…
FRANK McNULTY: It adds up really quick. Particularly when we’re talking about legislative time.
JEFF CRANK: Yeah. No kidding. Well, Speaker of the House Frank McNulty, you did a great job and I hope that the voters understand that and the citizens understand that. You’re fighting a good fight. This is an assault on the citizens of Colorado for nothing, because there’s nothing in there that people can’t do right now, and I want to thank you for all your great work on it.
FRANK McNULTY: You bet
