So long, FMA

June 7, 2006

The outcome was never in doubt, but now it’s official.

The [tag]Senate[/tag] on Wednesday rejected a constitutional [tag]amendment[/tag] to ban [tag]gay marriage[/tag], but supporters said new votes for the measure represent progress that gives conservative Republicans reason to vote on Election Day.

The 49-48 vote fell 11 short of the 60 required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally by the full Senate. The amendment’s failure was no surprise, but supporters said the vote reflected growing support among senators and Americans.

“We’re building votes,” said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who is among supporters of the ban who were not in the Senate when the amendment was last voted on in 2004. “That’s often what’s required over several years to get there, particularly to a two-thirds vote.”

Building votes? Proponents of the amendment couldn’t break 50 and bring this to the Senate floor in 2004 and they fell short of the same threshold again this year. At the rate they’re going, supporters might be able to get the two-thirds they need sometime around 2026. Good luck with that.

Well, at least this nonsense is behind us, right? Wrong. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he planned to bring this same silly amendment to the floor next month, despite the fact that it already lost in the Senate.

Well, at least the Senate can get back to substantive policy issues, right? Wrong. Next up: [tag]flag-burning[/tag].

It’s going to be a long summer.

Update: Here’s the roll call on today’s vote.

Of course they intend to lose. Then they can say, “Look, we’re trying…if you’d just stop these awful, evil Democrats from getting elected.” Then they make an insincere pouty face. It’s cattle drive to the polls.

  • senate.gov doesn’t have the rollcall – does anyone out there have it? Curious where those tough heterosexuals like Lincoln & the Nelsons wound up.

  • Last year Washington State passed a comprehensive gay rights law (equal access to housing, employment, insurance, etc.), an effort begun 30 years ago by the state’s (then) only openly gay legislator. Tim Eyman, who has made a career promoting initiatives to frustrate the will of the legislature, promised he’d bring that law up for popular vote through an initiative this year. Many pundits thought it would be easy for Eyman since the anti-gay churches backed him . Yesterday was the deadline for signature gathering. To cover slippage, about 130,000 signatures needed to be gathered to get it on the ballot. He got 105,000. The gay rights law takes effect today.

  • Got it – thanks.

    Byrd & the Nebraska Nelson vote for manly values. Supporting the filibuster, interestingly, were not just the usual suspects (Chafee, Collins, Snowe, Specter), but also the two New Hampshirites & even McCain. This won’t play well for his fence-mending.

  • There are times I thank God I don’t live in a democracy.

    This is one of them.

    Huzzah Constitutional Republics!

  • Interesting: Dodd, Rockefeller and Hagel were all listed as “Not Voting.” Surely those two Democrats would have voted Nay, and I think I remember reading that Hagel, who’s conservative but generally a serious-minded guy, was critical of wasting the public’s time on this.

    So if all three had voted, the Hate Amendment would have lacked even a plurality/majority.

  • It still baffles me why the Repubs are carrying on with this farce. Everybody knows why they’re doing it, on both sides of the aisle. Every form of media is putting out stories saying the same thing = it’s just transparent right-wing pandering and it’s not fooling anybody.

    Even the people they’re trying to flim flam again know exactly what’s happening. Religious extremists, I mean evangelicals, like James Dobson are quite vocal in their unhappiness and have told the White House straight up that they’re not buying it this time.

    And yet they continue. Doesn’t anybody on the Hill read the papers at all?

  • We are all losing! When people become so obsessed that their idenity is tied to their sexual activities. When those activities set loose a plague that scientist say is worse than the bubonic plague. When 40,000,000 have died and many millions will die. When millions of children have been orphaned and/or infected. ARE WE INSANE!

  • “When 40,000,000 have died and many millions will die. When millions of children have been orphaned and/or infected.” – BG

    Yes, but most of those 40 million are heterosexuals in Africa who got infected because they multilate the genitalia of their women (as in, completely hack off, and I use the word hack advisedly) and engage with unprotected sex with prostitutes because they work far from home. Where female genital multilation is not practiced, AIDS is far less prevalent.

    Really it is not fair to blame American homosexuals for the whole AIDS epidemic. And considering the type of contact that is required to spread the desease, it does not in any way compare to the plague.

  • And yet BG, even with all those scarey statistics, our administration still discourages providing a proper sexual education to our youth.

  • Not to mention, BG, that homosexual marriage is the promotion of monogamous activity, and it is homosexual promiscutity (and intravenous drug use) that spreads AIDS in America. So really, we want gay men to marry. It’s safer.

    Lesbians, of course, are a lot safer than the rest of us 😉

  • Not to mention what would happen if we get a bunch of lesbian polygamists out there. Oh, the horror!!

    Or not. Kind of depends, really.

  • “Not to mention what would happen if we get a bunch of lesbian polygamists out there.” – Curmudgeon

    I would expect a bunch of incredibly well adjusted kids.

  • Awwww, that’s so sweet, Joan. I’ll take you dancing any time. 🙂

    And you’re right, Lance, the children of such unions would be awesome!

    • Comments are closed.