In July, Eliot Spitzer told the editorial board of the Daily News that legalizing gay unions would not be one of his top priorities. Weeks earlier, he questioned President Clinton’s decision to address the gays in the military issue early in his presidency. “What a disastrous way to begin a presidency,” he told columnist Michael Goodwin.

That was then. Now, the attorney general is singing quite another show tune, vowing to push for gay marriage in New York State. Is it at all possible that this Democrat has wised up to the fact that the Foley affair is proving that the Democrat Party is more homophobic than the GOP?

Rep.Mark Foley and the page scandal are fading from the headlines as poll after poll show that while conservatives are dismayed and disappointed with the congressman, they are placing the blame squarely on Mr. Foley rather than the Republicans in the House. In a desperate measure to stir the religious right, “The List” of names of allegedly gay Republican congressional staffers has been distributed to various conservative groups by an obscure California foundation.Bryon York of National Review reported this week that one version of the list originated from a foundation headed by a former Democratic National Committee staffer, Rick Reidy. He quotes a conservative activist as saying: “They have this stereotype on us, the Christian right, and that stereotype is that we hate homosexuals. But that’s not the case and never has been, and that is why this is falling flat.”

Mr. Spitzer made his impassioned gay marriage vow before the Empire State Pride Agenda, the state’s leading gay lobbying group. He told the audience: “We will make it law in New York.” In your dreams, Mr. Spitzer.

Even those in the audience know that the gay marriage issue is not a popular one except in Massachusetts, home of Senator Kennedy and Rep. Barney Frank. So what do the voters there know?

It’s not just Christians that consider marriage to be the province between a man and a woman. The following passage can be found in “Genesis,” Chapter 2: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said: ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”

A nephew of mine who is gay challenged me at a wedding we attended two years ago in Chicago. He asked if I would ever attend a wedding between him and his longtime companion, and I had to say no because I would consider it a mockery of a sacrament. After the wedding ceremony, during which the minister read the above verses, my nephew conceded that he understood more clearly what I meant. My nephew and his lover are human beings whom I care for very deeply, but I also regard them as individuals rather than just gay men. Too often, I find, that homosexuals submerge their true identities behind their sexual orientation, leaving me to ask: “Is that all you are — gay? Where’s the rest of you?”

When left to a referendum for the voters to decide, the gay marriage agenda fails. Gay unions, on the other hand, seem to be an acceptable alternative for same-sex couples. So why push for gay marriage, Mr. Spitzer? Is this just another empty campaign promise to solidify the Democratic base? These calls from the Democratic leadership for Speaker Dennis Hastert to step down are so absurd that I have to believe that this party has completely lost its mind. Basically they are suggesting that because the GOP knew Mr. Foley was gay, he should have been asked to leave even though he had committed no crime. The pages were minors but over the age of 10, and thus Mr. Foley is not a pedophile — so where’s the ACLU?

Methinks Mr. Spitzer is snowing the gay community just as he is conning New Yorkers with his promise not to raise taxes.All he plans to do is add a 5-cent deposit on apple juice bottles. But who drinks apple juice? Babies and young children in families that can least afford higher prices.

Incidentally, New York’s Medicaid budget is larger than that of California, New Jersey, and Florida combined. Medicaid fraud runs into the billions. What have you done about it as attorney general? Next to answering these questions, pushing for gay marriage must sound easy.