Division on the Yes on 8 side?

It's not quite the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, but it looks like there's some division brewing among proponents of California's Proposition 8.  Perhaps the massive demonstrations in support of marriage equality, and the ongoing calls for economic boycotts of businesses that supported Prop 8 have thrown advocates of marriage discrimination off message.  Per the San Francisco Chronicle, it seems like ProtectMarriage.com - which argues that it is responsible for putting Prop 8 on the ballot - is acting like a diva.

The group that persuaded California voters this month to pass Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, now is fighting its friends as well as its foes.

Other conservative groups that loudly backed Prop. 8 are being targeted as too extreme and off-putting by ProtectMarriage.com, which put the constitutional amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot and hopes to help persuade the state Supreme Court to uphold the measure.

The issue here is that ProtectMarriage.com, which snuggled up next to the organization Campaign for California Families in the lead up to Election Day, now wants to disassociate itself with this group.  There's good reason, too.  The Campaign for California Families is headed by Randy Thomasson, a radical right activist who not only supports banning gay marriage, but supports banning hospital visitations for gay couples.  Thomasson's positions would also strip heterosexual domestic partner benefits away, too.  Yeah, he's that extreme.

The Campaign for California Families - which has misleadingly changed its name to the Campaign for Children and Families (misleading because the Campaign has nothing to do with children and families, and everything to do with focusing on anti-civil rights measures) - is also advocating a potential recall of justices on the California Supreme Court.  They are miffed that the Supreme Court is even willing to hear arguments that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.  Granted, that's the entire function of the judiciary - to impartially determine whether laws and policies are constitutional.

But not for Thomasson's purposes.  He only wants a judiciary branch that advocates for his anti-gay politics.  And now the folks at ProtectMarriage.com have to play the tricky dance of disassociating themselves with him and his radical organization.

And therein lies the problem.  There's really not all that much difference between ProtectMarriage.com and Randy Thomasson's group.  The only difference is that the ProtectMarriage.com people think they have a better PR strategy for dismantling civil rights, rescinding constitutional rights, and pressuring the California Supreme Court to follow their lead, or else.

So the only difference here is semantics.  One side is a bunch of extremists, and the other side is a bunch of con-artists.