In late August, Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett (R) faced a public relations nightmare when attorneys representing his administration compared LGBT couples to 12-year-old children. On Friday morning, in his ongoing attempts to undo the damage from the incident, Corbett may have made things much worse.
During an appearance on WHP-TV in Harrisburg, a smirking Governor Corbett acknowledged that the August comparison was an “inappropriate analogy” — and added that “a much better analogy would have been brother and sister.”
Anchorwoman Sherry Christian’s startled reaction says it all:
The incident was the latest in a seemingly never-ending series of controversies for Corbett, who ranks among the least popular governors in America with a 17 percent approval rating, according to an August 28th Franklin & Marshall College poll.. Early polling of his 2014 re-election race finds Corbett as a double-digit underdog to Democratic U.S. Representative Allyson Schwartz.
Update: Governor Corbett apologized for his remarks on Friday afternoon.
“My words were not intended to offend anyone. If they did, I apologize,” he said. “I explained that current Pennsylvania statute delineates categories of individuals unable to obtain a marriage license. As an example, I cited siblings as one such category, which is clearly defined in state law. My intent was to provide an example of these categories.”