Why Does Paul Donato (DINO-Medford) Hate Marriage?

[Ian David]

Why Does Paul Donato Hate Marriage?
by: Bob
Thu May 31, 2007 at 11:02:16 AM EDT

Sco lays it out at .08 Acres: Medford Representative Paul Donato wants to reduce the number of people who can get married in Massachusetts. Why does this elected official hate the wonderful institution of marriage? Why is he opposed to families, the bedrock of America? More specifically, where can a Democrat be found to run against Mr. Donato and give the voters of the 35th Middlesex a pro-marriage pro-family representative.

Representative Donato also uses our fine state Constitution, the oldest in the world, as a plaything for his personal prejudices, according to Sco's report. When it comes to health care, he claims that the legislature need not even vote on a proposed constitutional amendment. He backed this perverse philosophy with a vote for procedural shenanigans at the last ConCon that would have done Vladimir Ilych Lenin and the Cold War Politburo proud: the legislature never even voted on the health care amendment. When it comes to an anti-marriage amendment, however, he claims that not only must he vote -- he must vote Yes. This is political cynicism of the Karl Rove variety: the kind that destroys the confidence of observers in the personal integrity of the politician at issue.

Someone has got to run against Paul Donato and restore honor to the 35th Middlesex.

http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7485


See also:


Thursday, May 31, 2007
Donato Defends Anti-Marriage Stance

Representative Paul Donato (D-Medford) has a dozen reasons justifying his vote in favor of the anti-marriage amendment at this and last year's Constitutional Convention. He displayed all of them in a meeting with Medford High School students last week. He has surveys, he said, proving to him that people in his district don't want it. He supports of various other equal rights laws including civil unions. Besides, he says, if it passes, the students will always have a chance to overturn it sometime in the future. The biggest reason, though, was that he had to vote yes in order to protect democracy. From the Medford Transcript:

"First of all, I’m not a homophobe, I’ve had the opportunity to be friends with many gay individuals," Donato said. "But this is a government issue and the question isn’t gay marriage, but do people have the right to change the constitution."

Of course, in saying this, Donato seems to be abdicating his own role in the process to change the Constitution, as if he's a rubber stamp, powerless to block amendments regardless of what he thinks of them. That, of course, ignores the fact that Donato seemed to have absolutely no problem denying the people the "right" to vote on the Health Care amendment, by voting to adjourn before that vote was taken at the last ConCon. If he believes so strongly that people have "the right to change the constitution" why did he vote down that amendment? The end of the article tells us exactly why:

"At this point in my life, I just believe that marriage exists between a man and a woman," Donato said.

Fine. If that's why you're voting against the amendment, then just say that. Don't try to hide your rationale by inventing elaborate justifications for your position, and don't pretend that you're not voting based on your personal beliefs rather than some imagined defense of the democratic process -- particularly when your previous actions show otherwise.

More:
http://point08.blogspot.com/2007/05/donato-defends-anti-marriage-stance.html

[TaleWgnDg]

1. What do you expect from Donato? He's a bigot. Always has been . . .

and there's more here:

http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=54358

Donato wears his religion when voting at the Statehouse. He's an old school narrow-minded pol that cannot break away from the sour old bigots in Meffid. Hats off to those in Medford who can overcome such brainwashing in that generation but Donato has never been able to do so. BTW, he belongs to the class of Medford High grads who gave us NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R, NYC) and world-known author-writer Paul Theroux. (Theroux's earlier books contain snippets about such high school classmates like Donato, and not too kindly!)

Donato should (and will) be replaced by another Democrat, one that reflects non-discrimination for minorities (and women) as well as tolerance for immigrants. Indeed,for Donato has forgotten his own family's recent immigrant roots.