Karl Rove and the Sanctity of Marriage

Karl Rove and Britney Spears now have something in common other than just being from the south. Both are divorced. Britney ended her marriage(s) years ago, while Rove just ended his this past week. After 24 years, Karl and Darby Rove parted ways.

Kind of makes one wonder: If divorce is good enough for Karl Rove, why isn't marriage good enough for committed gays and lesbians?

Nobody wants to kick an elephant while he's down, but for Rove, there's certainly a bitter sense of irony at the man getting a divorce. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Rove worked for a President who championed a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that Rove was one of the principal architects of the political strategy that launched dozens of anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives across the country, fueling GOP voter turnout in 2002 and 2004 and sending the civil rights of LGBT couples up a stream.

In ending his marriage, Rove said via a family spokesperson, "The couple came to the decision mutually and amicably, and they maintain a close relationship and a strong friendship. There will be no further comment, and the family requests that its privacy be respected."

Privacy is kind of a funny word. In Rove's case, it's a word he's happy to apply to his divorce, but not happy to apply to the thousands of LGBT couples who are looking to start families or attain any of the 1,100 some benefits that are available to heterosexual married couples in the United States. No, when it comes to gay marriage, privacy is a term that seems to be missing from Karl Rove's vocabulary.

But hey, Rove isn't necessarily starting a new trend here. There have been enough politicos condemning gay marriage but divorcing up a storm to fill the Titanic. Take Newt Gingrich, who has been married three times. Or Rush Limbaugh who has done the same. And who can forget some of the adultery stars of 2009, like Gov. Mark Sanford or Sen. John Ensign. All were quick on the draw to blast gay marriage as an affront to traditional values. And all have watched their marriages dissolve to the point of divorce (or in Ensign's case, complete chaos that could threaten his political future). Talk about family values with a "Do as I say, don't do as I do," chaser.

Rove's personal life is Rove's personal life, and frankly, it shouldn't matter whether he gets divorced, remarries, or lives the rest of his life as a hermit chopping wood in some Appalachain forest. But the man is partly responsible for the 30-plus gay marriage bans that exist on state constitutions around the U.S. To not note the hypocrisy here seems like a little too much of a missed opportunity.

Or maybe it's just apt to say that in the end, Karl Rove proved to be a bigger threat to traditional marriage than any of the thousands of gay and lesbian couples struggling to get married in a culture of ballot initiatives.

(Photo courtesy of http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov)