Maggie Gallagher, board chair of the National Organization for Marriage, and Frank Cannon, president of The American Principles Project, are outraged over the GOP response to New York legalizing gay marriage.

During a recent edition of the Maggie Report, which is hosted by the Tea Party Review, Cannon blasted Republican presidential candidates for not taking a stronger stand against the issue.

“Where was the outcry?” Cannon asked. “Where is the commentary from the Republican presidential candidates? It is amazing that they are now vying in two weeks to be the winner of the Iowa Straw Poll. And for some candidates this is life and death politically. And even for those candidates, none of them has stepped forward to make New York a central issue. And this, as Maggie points out, is an issue across the United States that unites Republicans, doesn't divide them. And it unites Americans. So, where is a speech, a comment, a commercial by one of them who is trying to get 3,000 people to Ames in two weeks to show they have momentum. Why won't they use this issue? It's a big, big problem.”

Gallagher agreed, adding that Iowan voters especially oppose marriage equality.

“This is a situation in which the Republican elites from the top down are intimidated by the financial base of the party and intimidated by the media base,” Cannon continued. “And if they close down in a presidential campaign, it's done with.”

“You're right Frank,” Gallagher said. “It's absolutely a kind of consensus group think among Republican elites that's beginning to emerge that an issue in which the majority of Americans have shown time and time again that they believe marriage is the union of husband and wife, the elites have no confidence in expressing that view.”