FMA down in flames! - Page:1

From CNN.com:

Same-sex marriage Senate battle over, war is not
GOP leaders fail to get enough votes to advance measure

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Efforts to pass a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban same-sex marriage failed in the Senate Wednesday afternoon, but supporters vowed to keep fighting for the measure.

"Ultimately, we will win this fight," said Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. "Marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

The proposed amendment was killed for this session after a procedural vote to move the measure to the Senate floor failed 48-50, or 12 votes shy of the 60 required by Senate rules.

Six Republicans -- including Sen. John McCain of Arizona -- joined 43 Democrats and one independent to defeat the measure. Three Democrats and 45 Republicans voted for it.

Republicans had expected to muster the votes needed to at least advance the measure, if not the 67 required to pass it. They also expected to force the presumptive Democratic presidential ticket -- Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina -- to vote against it.

A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress to pass. Then the proposal would need the approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures to be ratified.

Opponents denounced the failed effort as a "political tool" during an election year.

"Today, we saw President Bush and the Republican leadership attempt to divide America and it backfired," said Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization. "We saw the politics of distraction fail and fail handily."

Kerry was in Boston Wednesday and did not vote, but he expressed opposition in a written statement.

"Throughout history, amending our Constitution -- the foundation of the nation's values and ideals -- has been serious business," he said.

"However, even Republicans concede that this amendment is being offered only for political gains. The unfortunate result is that the important work of the American people -- funding our homeland security needs, creating new and better jobs, and raising the minimum wage -- is not getting done," Kerry said.

At a campaign rally in Iowa, Edwards noted that Republicans joined the Democratic leadership in rejecting the amendment.

"The president and the vice president tried to use our Constitution and the amendment of that Constitution as a political tool, and the United States Senate today said, 'No, we will not accept it,' " Kerry said.

Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the minority leader, echoed Kerry's sentiments.

"In 217 years, we've only amended that sacred document 17 times. There have been 11,000 separate attempts," Daschle said.

Social conservatives have been pushing hard for the measure since May, when the highest court in Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in the Bay State.

Bush has championed the amendment and said it is necessary to defend the institution of marriage from "activist judges."

That view was expressed by Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee during debate.

"It has become clear to legal scholars ... that same-sex marriage will be exported to all 50 states," said the majority leader.

"Will activist judges not elected by the American people destroy the institution of marriage, or will the people protect marriage as the best way to raise children? My vote is with the people," Frist said.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said the amendment would simply preserve a fundamental institution "that a few unelected judges are trying to radically change." It's not a question of discrimination against gays, he said.

"Nobody wants to discriminate against gays. We, simply put, want to preserve traditional marriage. Gays have a right to live the way they want, but they should not have the right to change the definition of traditional marriage," Hatch said.

The amendment, as originally proposed by Republican Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado, would add these two sentences to the Constitution:

"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

Some Republicans objected to the second sentence, saying it was so ambiguous that it also could prevent states from allowing gays and lesbians to join in civil unions.

McCain broke forcefully with Bush and the Senate GOP leadership Tuesday evening over the issue, taking to the Senate floor to call such an amendment unnecessary -- and un-Republican.

McCain said the amendment "will not be adopted by Congress this year, nor next year, nor any time soon until a substantial majority of Americans are persuaded that such a consequential action is as vitally important and necessary as the proponents feel it is today." (Full story)

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