Remember the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment? For a while, that seemed like a big story. Bush was on board, the religious right was all fired up, and the press was giving the proposal front-page treatment. That was before Iraq started falling apart at the seams and we all realized there were more important things than passing a constitutional amendment to ban legal recognition of committed loving relationships between two consenting adults.
Well, most of us, anyway.
The FMA has faded from public view, but Roll Call is reporting that some of Congress’ most misguided members still want the proposal on the legislative front burner. Leading the way, of course, is Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum. What a shock.
While Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (Pa.) acknowledged that supporters of the ban don’t have the 67 votes needed to send the measure to the states for ratification, he vowed to force a vote on the issue before the election, to compel Senators to take a position on the issue.
“I intend to work very hard to get a vote,” Santorum said. “I have made it clear that is my desire and I believe the Senate should go on the record.”
Also not surprisingly, the move is being pushed behind-the-scenes by the GOP base — the religious right.
Massachusetts’ decision to sanction gay marriages last week prompted lawmakers and socially conservative groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition and Christian Coalition of America to renew calls for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex unions.
[…]
[G]roups that oppose same-sex marriage are urging that a vote be held no later than early October so that they can build a political campaign around the issue.
“We want all 535 Members to be on the record,” said Jim Backlin, the vice president of legislative affairs at the Christian Coalition.
The GOP is apparently taking this seriously, scared of angering the only base of support the party has left.
Republican Senators were issued talking points on the subject twice last week, first as part of the GOP’s weekly message plan Tuesday and later in a Memorial Day recess packet that also emphasized other issues such as the economy and the Iraq war.
“This is a national crisis that requires a national response – a federal constitutional amendment,” according to one of the talking points contained in both packets.
One really has to wonder if they’ve completely lost their minds.
First, they obviously don’t have the votes. It’s not even close. When the amendment was unveiled in the Senate in November, it immediately picked up the support of six co-sponsors. Since then, not a single senator has signed on. Not even one.
Publicly, only 29 senators have said they’ll support it on the Senate floor — that’s barely a majority of the GOP caucus and years from the 67 votes proponents need. As the campaign season progresses, and intra-party fighting increases within the Republican caucus, picking a culture war fight that forces conservatives to side with the Dems seems like the dumbest idea the far right has come up with in a while.
Second, the public really isn’t with them on this. In fact, it’s impossible for any serious person to argue that legal gay relationships constitute, as the GOP put it, “a national crisis” when the public sees a real crisis in Iraq.
As luck would have it, a poll was released last week by the Annenberg Public Policy Center on this issue. Opponents of an amendment once again outnumbered supporters (50-42) — hardly a wringing national endorsement of a radical change in the Constitution.
Obviously, politics is driving the renewed interest in the FMA, but the motivation is terribly misguided. Instead of bringing people together in the time of an international crisis, the GOP is poised to once again return to its culture war roots and pit Americans against other Americans for political gain.
How pathetic.