Gay Marriage Amendment Not Coming Soon

[CornField]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20041227/ap_on_go_co/gay_marriage_congress

WASHINGTON - Opponents of gay marriage concede victory will not be swift in their attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution, even after prevailing in all 11 states where the issue was on the ballot last month.

While the Nov. 2 election also increased the ranks of amendment supporters in both houses of Congress, the gains were relatively small.

"We're going to have to see additional court cases come down" supporting gay marriage before congressional sentiment shifts dramatically, predicted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who supports the amendment that failed in both houses of Congress this year.

Critics of gay marriage have long warned of such court rulings. Cornyn and others who support changing the Constitution to ban gay marriage say several cases have the potential to produce a sharp shift in congressional sentiment toward their viewpoint. They point to suits in Florida, California, Nebraska and elsewhere.

(more)

[Bridget Burke]

1. They're really not that concerned with preventing Gay marriage

But they'll trot out the issue again before the next election.

[brentspeak]

20. I think you're right. It's all about the wedge issues. n/t

[grumpy old fart]

2. * never was serious about the Amendment....

was just a way to get the one issue idiots to the polls.

[Lenape85]

18. ...and more money in his wallet

[hatrack]

3. Just like the abortion ban - not coming anytime soon

Why, after all, would the Troglodytic Right want to give up the two most effective political weapons it owns?

[davidinalameda]

5. didn't Reagan promise a constitutional ban on abortion

I'm still waiting on that one

I don't forsee the fundie Xians getting the necessary votes in Congress to pass it out--why should they

it will ruin their fundraising

[Lenape85]

19. And didn't Raygun also appoint 2 pro-choice judges for every pro-lifer????

[InvisibleBallots]

10. wait - I thought we were all in serious danger?

I thought that we were all in serious danger of having abortions be made illegal, women arresting for having miscarriages, and gay men and women kidnapped and put in to camps if Bush was re-elected?

You mean this whole thing was little more than a GOTV campaign for the GOP?

[SmokingJacket]

4. When are the RW voters going to see how tricked they've been?

They bring out this and abortion, dangle them in front of voters, then file them away till next election.

Will the repub voters EVER catch on?

[BrainRants]

7. They already can't remember the issues of THIS election!

But they can recite the top ten finishers in the past 5 Daytona 500's! :)

[girl gone mad]

9. In the land of Republican voters..

actions don't matter, all that matters is the ability to recite a few choice talking points. Abortion rates climbed under Bush, but he said he supported a "culture of life", which was good enough for his fundie followers.

[bleedingheart]

6. ..."been delayed until we whip it out in 2008 to wreak further havoc"

[gratuitous]

8. Another sucker bait-and-switch

But it keeps working so well, it's hard to see the GOP abandoning this strategy anytime soon.

[happyslug]

11. Yes Election over, no need for this for another 2-4 years

I expect it to come back up along with some Gun owners protection laws in about two years (for the mid-term election). I first ran across this in the Pennsylvania Governor Election of 1974. The Democratic Governor (Milton Shapp) was running for re-election so the GOP controlled State House started to look into the "Corruption" in his administration. All types of headlines (they even caught a few thieves) but nothing to connect Shapp with the Corruption but kept saying Shapp was the Heart of the Corruption in the state.

As soon as Shapp was re-elected the GOP closed down the investigation. The GOP made a statement that the committee had "finished its job" but they did not even wait till the end of November to close down. It was so political that even I saw it (and I was a teenager at the time). They tried it again four years later and mongered to get a GOP Governor (Thornburg) who "promised" to get rid of the Corruption. We than proceeded not to hear of corruption for eight years. Some how it just disappeared with a GOP Governor.

The GOP did try it again against Casey when he was Governor but it was his fellow Scanton Area resident (and GOP Pennsylvania Attorney General) who was convicted of taking bribes. Given Casey's investigation of Shapp and Thornburg administration (Where Casey did find some corruption, more than the GOP Committee did) it was hard for the GOP to accuse Casey of Corruption. The use of "Corruption" also started to have its drawbacks as far as the GOP was concerned (Given that every time you turn around another Republican was going to Jail). Thus the GOP decided that corruption investigations had gone to far and decided on other sleaze tactics.

[David Zephyr]

12. Saving It For the Midterms.

Natch.

[Democrats_win]

14. Like Clockwork Orange

save for the midterms to condition all Americans loosing jobs to vote against their best interests.

[David Zephyr]

15. For Karl Rove & Republicans: Homos Are Their Domestic Muslims

The Republican Party has not run a national race in fifty years without targeting one minority American group which is easy to identify.

Homosexuals provide the Republicans with the domestic bogeyman equivalent of their trumped up international one: Muslims.

[Va Lefty]

13. Wedge issue

Who needs an amendment when you can have an issue to fire up the rednecks, bigots and raise money?

[GOPBasher]

16. Oh I feel so sorry for the Christian Right.

I guess Bush just played them for the fools they are. Don't you feel sorry for them? <sarcasm off>

[karlrschneider]

17. Like the "war on drugs", even if they COULD "win", they wouldn't want to.

It's a rhetorical point, not a goal.