Republican Party in Against the Tide, by Lincoln Chafee

On Civil Rights: 2006: Federalize gay marriage via Constitutional Amendment

Republicans are generally seen as the party that favors independence at the state level. But now we wanted to amend the US Constitution to forbid any state to allow gays to marry. Congress itself would not ban gay marriage; but the amendment would prevent liberal states from recognizing gay couples as married, even if most citizens in that state wanted such a law enacted. Democracy might be everything in Iraq, but we were declaring an urgent need to rein it in here at home.

On Principles & Values: Pass laws against those who desecrate the flag

In meetings with veterans I argued that almost no one desecrates the flag. To the contrary, September 11 had inspired millions of Americans to start flying the flag for the 1st time in their lives. Republicans were whipping up veterans over a nonissue for short-term political gain in November.

I had not seen an American protester burn an American flag in 30 years. It was just plain wrong and irresponsible to use our own partisan political agenda to poison 50 statehouses with the emotional nonissues. We would be sabotaging the real work our state lawmakers had to accomplish.

The House passed the amendment and Pres. Bush was delighted to announce that he would sign the legislation if the Senate followed suit [but it failed].