The values vote took a left turn on many ballot initiatives
Friday, November 10, 2006
ELLEN GOODMAN
Published in the Columbus Dispatch At precisely 4:09 p.m. on Election Day, a breaking news alert came into my e-mail courtesy of CNN. What could it be? The ultimate November surprise? A voter gone postal over the robo-calls? A candidate gone berserk at the election booth? Noooo. Britney Spears filed for divorce from Kevin Federline. Stop the presses — or at least the Web server. This turned out to be an omen of things to come. Within hours, some hardy Republican spinmeisters from bloggers to Bill Bennett were attributing the takeover of the House by Democrats to nothing more than another "six-year itch." The relationship between the president and the people may have lasted three times as long as Kevin and Britney’s marriage, but it had taken a natural downward course. Nothing personal, nothing political. Just an itch that needed to be scratched. If this spin makes you dizzy, pirouette back to the election of 2004. When it was over, the religious right claimed victory for "values voters." The headlines read, "Moral values drove Bush victory" and "Faith, values fuel win." Values was a code for being anti-abortion and antigay rights. .. You can read the rest of this Ellen Goodman column on the Columbus Dispatch website.
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