Bush's "Gay Agenda" - I get frustrated by pro-Bush gay bloggers (you know who you are) who spin the President (i.e., misrepresent his views) on civil unions. Bush has not publicly endorsed civil unions. He has not "said that gay and lesbian relationships should be recognized." Not now, not in the past, not ever -- the man can barely squeak out the word "gay." What he has said is the following:

I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do so. ... States ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others. [Emphasis mine.]

Hmm. So all Bush concedes is that states ought to have the "right to pass laws" that enable civil unions. Wow, don't go out on a limb there, George. About the best you can say Bush might do is wink-and-nod at congressional drafters of a Federal Marriage Amendment, seeing if they could tone down their text to leave space for civil unions. I'm enough of a realist to admit that this represents progress. What I am not going to do is engage in wild flights of fancy suggesting that this stance translates into Marriage Lite rights for homos under federal law next year or in the three that follow.