Technically, I support Alexi Giannoulias for U.S. Senate.  I also supported Barack Obama for Senate.  Obama is governing as a moderate so far.  Obama has yet to find the courage to be liberal.

Alexi Giannoulias recently took a stand on an issue that Obama danced around: gay marriage.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias said Wednesday he favors legalization of same-sex marriage and, if elected, would seek to repeal a federal law that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman.

In an interview, Giannoulias said individual states should be able to decide for themselves whether they allow same-sex couples to marry, but that all states should be required to afford legal recognition to same-sex marriages performed in states where they are sanctioned.

Giannoulias also would require the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages, now prohibited by the Defense of Marriage Act he wants repealed. He says this would have the effect, in part, of allowing gay and lesbian couples to file joint federal income tax returns and receive Social Security survivor benefits.

To top it off, he wants to repeal the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

I give Alexi credit for taking a stand.  I hope he remembers what he says he stands for after he’s elected.

Some are wondering where the change is.  Barack seems to be very taken with the power of the office of president, and that has me worried.  The ability to wage war must be its own aphrodesiac.

Some are wondering aloud.  From NPR:

Vermont on Tuesday joined five other states that have given same-sex couples the right to marry. That situation was almost unimaginable a decade ago, when, after rancorous debate, the state became the first in the union to enact same-sex civil unions.

But despite the historic gains made by the nation’s gay community, this year has largely been one of disappointment for many whose hopes were pinned on President Obama’s promise of change after two terms of an openly hostile Republican administration.

“People were shellshocked from the last eight years,” says Michael Joseph Gross, a New York-based writer whose recent piece about Obama and the gay community, “Hope and History,” appeared in The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian newsmagazine.

Obama supports civil unions, but he has never come out publicly in support of same-sex marriage. Nonetheless, Gross says, the gay community saw in Obama a fierce ally in the White House. And as recently as June, the president pledged to “bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans.”

“This was supposed to be the easy part,” Gross says.

Obama is one hell of a campaigner when running for office.  He just doesn’t seem to like campaigning for things that are really important.  It’s real important that he appear friendly with people who will never vote for or with him on any issue — like the Movement Conservative Republicans who dominate the Republican Party right now.

What have these ideologically driven conservatives who long ago lost the ability to think critically about any issue given us?

Nothing.

So, I’ll support you, Alexi.  You’ve got guts.  I hope you mean what you say.