The Marriage Protection Amendment of November 2006

The morning after the Republican party lost the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, one day after the Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll showed that Republicans have lost their edge with voters on the issues of taxes, spending, immigration and foreign policy, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter stepped forward to save the Republican majorities in the House and Senate from destruction in next year's congressional elections.

He cast the deciding yes vote allowing the Marriage Protection Amendment to escape from Kansas Senator Sam Brownback's subcommittee on the Constitution and move to the full Judiciary Committee, where prominent Democrats will be forced to take a divisive and high-profile stand on the generally unpopular issue of same-sex marriage.

Senator Specter said he opposes the amendment. He told reporters he voted for it because he felt it shouldn't "be bottled up" in committee.

This is known in baseball as taking one for the team.

Senator Sam Brownback has sponsored the federal marriage amendment, according to his Senate web site, because "pro-family advocates are concerned that the traditional definition of marriage could be in jeopardy due to activist judicial rulings, such as the recent decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to allow gay marriages in that state."

It's true, by the way, that the only sure way to ban gay marriage in the United States is with a constitutional amendment. Read "Judicial Activism and the Constitutional Amendment on Marriage" at www.SusanShelley.com for details and source notes.

Republicans apparently believe they can rally their base and split the Democrats if they make gay marriage an important and prominent issue in the 2006 congressional elections. The swing voters who decide close elections may forget about taxes and spending and immigration and foreign policy when somebody tells them their seven-year-old's school reading list will include "Daddy's Roommate."

Pretty cynical. It will probably work.


Copyright 2005

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