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Republicans in the U.S. Senate are pushing hard to get a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to the floor by July 12. That would force Sen. John Kerry to vote on the controversial issue on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which will begin in Boston two weeks later to cement his presidential nomination.
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Why else would Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, withdraw his own effort to draft an alternative to the proposal favored by his party's leadership? And why else would the Senate leadership abandon the traditional practice of vetting various contenders for a constitutional amendment in that committee before sending a recommendation to the floor?
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... it is doubtful that the Republicans have enough votes for the current proposal to win a favorable recommendation from the Judiciary Committee, and it is even more doubtful that it could win the 67 votes necessary to pass the Senate.
Fortunately, there appear to be enough senators of both parties who recognize that a constitutional amendment is a grave step that should be avoided unless all other remedies have been exhausted. They also can see that the American people are nowhere near reaching that kind of consensus.
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http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06262004/opinion/178956.asp