Partial transcript from an interview with CNSNews.com:
Huckabee: … You know, it’s interesting, the California decision as well as the Massachusetts decision, I don’t think should ever have been implemented by the governors, Schwarzenegger and Romney. They were both decisions that the governors simply could have said the court has said that we have to do it, but let them enforce it. Because those were administrative decisions that had to put that in place and there was no mandate.
Jeffrey: Right, but Governor Romney actually went ahead and certified same-sex marriages without an act of his state legislature.
Huckabee: It should never have happened. It should never have happened. And while we want to blame the courts–
Jeffrey: Does that disqualify him as a vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party?
Huckabee: Well, you know, I’ve not probably been an advocate for him in that position. And, you know, I am going to let him defend himself. And I don’t want to relive the primary. But I think that that was a very unfortunate position that he took in saying that, “Well, I can’t do anything about it.” Oh, yes you can.
Jeffrey: You hold him responsible for the same-sex marriages in Massachusetts?
Huckabee: Not singularly. I hold him responsible for implementing–
Jeffrey: He could have stopped it?
Huckabee: He could have stopped it, and should have stopped it.
Jeffrey: And if you were governor of Massachusetts you would not have gone ahead and–
Huckabee: I would not have done that.
Jeffrey: You would not have had the clerks and justices of the peace — Certify those marriages?
Huckabee: Absolutely not.
From CNSNews.com:
“I would not have done that,” said Huckabee, who taped an appearance on CNSNews.com’s “Online with Terry Jeffrey” on August 15.
In a 4-3 decision issued on Nov. 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry in Massachusetts. The court gave the state legislature until May 17, 2004 to enact legislation to allow such marriages to take place.
In the intervening time, the Massachusetts legislature did not enact a law codifying same-sex marriages. Before the May 17, 2004 deadline, however, then-Gov. Romney directed that the words “bride” and “groom” on Massachusetts marriage applications be changed to “Party A” and “Party B.“
Romney’s chief legal counsel, Daniel Winslow, told justices of the peace in Massachusetts that they should carry out the decision of the court and perform same-sex marriages or resign.
“My message was: ‘You took an oath, and you don’t have to agree or disagree with the law, you took an oath to uphold the law. Your only job is to follow the law,'” Winslow told Pete Winn of CNSNews.com in January. “We’ll leave it to the courts to litigate what the law is, but once the courts have ruled, if you’ve taken an oath under the constitution, you have to follow your oath.”
Welcome to the ProtectMarriage.com coalition.
So much for the Mormon-Evangelical interfaith dialogue. It was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?
With friends like these …
And until I get the YouTube working right, the juicy bits are at 31:13 ~ 32:17 in the video over at CNSNews.com.
UPDATE (the clip):