Thompson, interviewed by the Register on Tuesday, October 2nd, offers a "judicially created solution" to counter what he sees as a judiciary overreach in the enactment of same-sex marriages. Whereas the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment would have barred states entirely from affirming marriage rights, Thompson proposes leaving avenues open for state legislatures to decide on their own whether to affirm those rights, strictly on a state level.

Says The Gist's Michelangelo Signorile in his post, Fred Thompson Already Screwing Up On Marriage:

"His amendment wouldn't ban states from legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians (as the FMA does) but would prevent states from having to recognize marriages among gay men and lesbians from other states. Of course, this is precisely what the Defense of Marriage Act does, but many conservatives are afraid DOMA will one day be ruled unconstitutional. Thus, this is an attempt by Freddie to placate them by showing support for enshrining DOMA in the Constitution while hoping that Republican moderates (and Democrats and independents in a general election) will see this as a less harsh position against the gays."

"If a state chose to recognize it," says Thompson, "and the governor signed off and signed it into legislation, 'so be it.' My opinion would be that would be a very bad thing and a very surprising thing; no state has done that."

This meeting with the Register is not the first time Thompson has made such a claim about state legislatures and marriage rights, and this claim has made him appear as "out of touch."

Says Signorile:

"Thompson expounded on his plan in Iowa, and gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network, which was quick to point out that he got all the facts wrong. His people then sent a correction claiming that Thompson didn't mean to say that no legislature had passed a marriage bill but rather that no state had (and likely wouldn't). But that was idiotic and made him seem even more out of touch since, as I described, a few states are in fact very close to doing so, and you better believe the fundies know that."

California, for example, has passed legislation to affirm same-sex marriage rights for the second time as of last month, possibly to face a second Governor's veto. Iowa recently overturned its state gay marriage ban under a Democratic legislature. New York's Assembly, while facing opposition from the state Senate, has pushed for marriage rights as well.

Massachusetts, the first state to legally recognize full marriage for same-sex couples, recently saw its legislature reject an amendment to overturn the rights, judicially affirmed.

Thompson says he seeks to "preserve the main and underlying tenet of federalism...at the end of the day, if states choose to go this direction, the Federal Government will not stop them from doing that."

Below is a video clip of Thompson's exchange with the Des Moines Register: