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Gingrich, Pawlenty, Santorum: Axe those Iowa Judges!

 

Three major GOP figures support the move to oust Iowa judges who voted for SSM. Why are we reading about this only in the gay press?

Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum In Favor Of Axing Judges

By Carlos Santoscoy
Published: August 27, 2010

Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum are in favor of axing three Iowa Supreme Court judges who ruled in favor of gay marriage.

The low-lying campaign to remove the judges has been underway since the court's April 2009 unanimous ruling that brought gay marriage to the Midwest, but a Friday story in the Washington Post has put the issue front and center. . . .

Republicans considering a 2012 presidential bid have been weighing in on the issue.

“Iowans are unique in that they have the ability to send a very clear and simple message that the court's behavior is unacceptable by just voting 'no' on the three judges who are up for reappointment,” Gingrich said in an interview with WHO-AM. “If a majority of Iowans vote 'no,' that will send a signal to the whole country that there is a citizens revolt under way.”

“We're going to have to fundamentally revisit how we deal with judges because the judicial branch has grown much too powerful and much too dictatorial and now regularly over reaches in telling us how to live,” he added.

Minnesota Governor Pawlenty expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with The Associated Press. He said the does not like judges “inserting their personal views to change” the definition of marriage and added that he was OK with the campaign to oust the judges.

In May, Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have allowed gay couples to control the remains of a loved one. “I oppose efforts to treat domestic relationships as the equivalent of traditional marriage,” he said in opposing the bill.

At the Iowa State Fair this week, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a staunch social conservative, also backed the plan.

“People should decide issues, not courts,” he told the Des Moines Register. “This court attempted to impose its values on society.”

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