Pure
Fiel a Verdad
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Seems attention must be shifted from Iraq's budding democrazy.
Senate Braces Itself for Fight on Gay Marriage
By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: July 9, 2004
WASHINGTON, July 8 - Admitting upfront that they do not expect to win, conservatives are preparing to plunge the Senate into an election-year fight over a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
More precisely, conservatives say, they do not expect to triumph in the Senate, whether the main showdown comes on a procedural issue or on the amendment itself. But they say they expect to get one thing they very much want: a vote that puts every member of the Senate on record on an issue that both Republicans and Democrats see as a political wedge.
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With the Senate set to begin debate on Friday, Dr. James C. Dobson, a popular conservative Christian self-help author and broadcaster, devoted two episodes of his radio program this week to urging listeners to call their senators and reciting the names of 69 senators who had not yet agreed to support the amendment.
"We may not have the votes to win it," Dr. Dobson said in the broadcast. "I am afraid we don't, and our listeners need to let their senators know right now that they are watching, that they are paying attention and they will remember the vote that occurs this week on this critical issue."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobbying group, said, "Social conservatives are looking at this issue so we know who needs to be educated on this issue or removed if that is possible."
From the other side of the divide, Ron Schlittler, executive director of the group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, offered this view of the conservatives' yearlong campaign to bring the proposed amendment to a vote: "People's lives and families are being used as political fodder here."
Senator Wayne Allard, Republican of Colorado and the Senate author of the proposal, and other supporters of it believe the amendment is necessary in response to court decisions recognizing same-sex marriages despite a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Mr. Allard and others said the most likely scenario would be a vote, by the middle of next week, to cut off debate on the issue, which requires 60 votes. Should supporters not reach that level, the proposal would be dead for the year. The amendment itself would need 67 votes to pass.
Though Mr. Allard said he believed he still had a chance of success, many conservative backers of the amendment are resigned to defeat. Some are urging President Bush, a strong supporter of the amendment, to take up the subject more enthusiastically to distract voters from reports of bad news in Iraq.
"The president has bet the farm on Iraq," Paul Weyrich, a veteran Christian conservative organizer, warned in a recent e-mail newsletter. "Given what the continued killing has done to the president's standing in the polls this far, it is a lead-pipe cinch that as we lead up to the first days of November 2004, violence is going to be horrific."
Mr. Weyrich's solution said his solution was to "change the subject" to the Federal Marriage Amendment.
"Ninety-nine percent of the president's base will unite behind him if he pushed the amendment,'' he said. "It will cause Mr. Kerry no end of problems."
As for the gay Republicans whose votes Mr. Bush might then lose, Mr. Weyrich wrote, "Good riddance."
Senators John Kerry and John Edwards both oppose the proposed amendment, saying that while they do not support same-sex marriage, the issue should be left to individual states to decide.
Spokesmen for Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards said they did not know whether the candidates would be in Washington for the debate and votes next week.
"We're not going to do our travel schedule based on political gamesmanship on the Senate floor,'' Stephanie Cutter, the Kerry campaign's communications director, said.
Ms. Cutter noted that Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards have said they support gay rights, oppose gay marriage and oppose the amendment.
"You don't amend the Constitution to roll back rights," she said.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards are getting some pressure to attend the Senate session from opponents of the amendment, who want to defeat it by the widest possible margin.
"The larger the margin, the stronger the message that the politics of discrimination will not work," said Steven Fisher, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign.
Even Republicans acknowledged that a failure by the two to vote on the measure would do little harm among gays who are incensed at the Republican-led drive for the amendment.
Senate Braces Itself for Fight on Gay Marriage
By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: July 9, 2004
WASHINGTON, July 8 - Admitting upfront that they do not expect to win, conservatives are preparing to plunge the Senate into an election-year fight over a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
More precisely, conservatives say, they do not expect to triumph in the Senate, whether the main showdown comes on a procedural issue or on the amendment itself. But they say they expect to get one thing they very much want: a vote that puts every member of the Senate on record on an issue that both Republicans and Democrats see as a political wedge.
Advertisement
With the Senate set to begin debate on Friday, Dr. James C. Dobson, a popular conservative Christian self-help author and broadcaster, devoted two episodes of his radio program this week to urging listeners to call their senators and reciting the names of 69 senators who had not yet agreed to support the amendment.
"We may not have the votes to win it," Dr. Dobson said in the broadcast. "I am afraid we don't, and our listeners need to let their senators know right now that they are watching, that they are paying attention and they will remember the vote that occurs this week on this critical issue."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobbying group, said, "Social conservatives are looking at this issue so we know who needs to be educated on this issue or removed if that is possible."
From the other side of the divide, Ron Schlittler, executive director of the group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, offered this view of the conservatives' yearlong campaign to bring the proposed amendment to a vote: "People's lives and families are being used as political fodder here."
Senator Wayne Allard, Republican of Colorado and the Senate author of the proposal, and other supporters of it believe the amendment is necessary in response to court decisions recognizing same-sex marriages despite a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Mr. Allard and others said the most likely scenario would be a vote, by the middle of next week, to cut off debate on the issue, which requires 60 votes. Should supporters not reach that level, the proposal would be dead for the year. The amendment itself would need 67 votes to pass.
Though Mr. Allard said he believed he still had a chance of success, many conservative backers of the amendment are resigned to defeat. Some are urging President Bush, a strong supporter of the amendment, to take up the subject more enthusiastically to distract voters from reports of bad news in Iraq.
"The president has bet the farm on Iraq," Paul Weyrich, a veteran Christian conservative organizer, warned in a recent e-mail newsletter. "Given what the continued killing has done to the president's standing in the polls this far, it is a lead-pipe cinch that as we lead up to the first days of November 2004, violence is going to be horrific."
Mr. Weyrich's solution said his solution was to "change the subject" to the Federal Marriage Amendment.
"Ninety-nine percent of the president's base will unite behind him if he pushed the amendment,'' he said. "It will cause Mr. Kerry no end of problems."
As for the gay Republicans whose votes Mr. Bush might then lose, Mr. Weyrich wrote, "Good riddance."
Senators John Kerry and John Edwards both oppose the proposed amendment, saying that while they do not support same-sex marriage, the issue should be left to individual states to decide.
Spokesmen for Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards said they did not know whether the candidates would be in Washington for the debate and votes next week.
"We're not going to do our travel schedule based on political gamesmanship on the Senate floor,'' Stephanie Cutter, the Kerry campaign's communications director, said.
Ms. Cutter noted that Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards have said they support gay rights, oppose gay marriage and oppose the amendment.
"You don't amend the Constitution to roll back rights," she said.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards are getting some pressure to attend the Senate session from opponents of the amendment, who want to defeat it by the widest possible margin.
"The larger the margin, the stronger the message that the politics of discrimination will not work," said Steven Fisher, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign.
Even Republicans acknowledged that a failure by the two to vote on the measure would do little harm among gays who are incensed at the Republican-led drive for the amendment.
