Cheers to Becky Skillman, Esther of our Day?

Curt Smith writes a tribute piece in today’s Veritax Rex blog on Indiana Lt. Gov Becky Skillman. Writing a tribute is an interesting and unusual use for a blog, but if anybody deserves a tribute, Becky sure fits the bill. As a veteran representative in the Indiana General Assembly, the elegant Hoosierette earned her reputation as a rock-ribbed conservative who both campaigned and voted the Right way.

Curiously missing from the tribute was a mention of My Man Mitch, who has courted the gay, lesbian, bisexual, trisexual, asexual, etalsexual, transgendered, reversed gendered, ungendered, omnigendered, and etalgendered ever since beating My Man Miller in the May 2004 GOP primary. To revisit: MMMitch wooed a sufficient number of conservatives with the, "I'm every bit as conservative as Eric Miller and I can win" gospel. That gospel saved MMMitch's candidacy, and to be fair, while history did not afford an opportunity to Eric Miller to prove his electoral heft, MMMitch was ultimate proven quite electable and his win did, in fact, contribute to the saving of babies through passage of a number of very important pro-life victories that social conservatives would not have otherwise realized under a Kernan administration.

But that gospel did seem to lack a sense of inerrancy. Now, coming up on four years and multiple overtures to the GLBTETAL community that offered zero help to the (failed! By a tied committee vote, even!) Marriage Amendment, Indiana’s pro-family advocacy community is fed up with feeling like MMMitch’s jilted political lovers. Some pro-family groups have cut him more slack than others, but I can’t help but wonder if they are preparing to sharpen their hermeneutical moxie as they more carefully review the Governor’s 2008 gospel.

The question becomes whether Becky really has any say or control in how Mitch Daniels governs on these issues important to social conservatives. If Romans 1 and 70%+ of Hoosier Republicans and Democrats (who agree with Romans 1) can’t convince MMMitch that traditional marriage is worth his support, who can? If she has any such sway, I hope she’ll use it soon, for if she waits for her own gubernatorial run in 2012, the courts will likely have rendered the matter moot.