The Rush to Wedlock Politics
EDITORIAL, NYTimes on the Web, July 2, 2004
The Senate Republicans' maneuver to stage a hurried, red-meat floor debate for President Bush's proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is nothing more than low-grade political mischief.
The majority leader, Bill Frist, has opted to trash Senate procedure and bypass proper consideration in the Judiciary Committee to revive the Bush amendment, deservedly moribund for months.
It is expected to come up barely a week before the Democratic presidential convention, perfect timing, as Bush partisans read their calendar, for pandering anew to their right-wing base.
In truth, the amendment has been generating all the Capitol momentum of a lead balloon.
It is languishing far from the two-thirds' Congressional approval needed to send it to the states for consideration.
Many politicians and an increasing number of other Americans, even those opposed to gays' marrying, find the idea of amending the Constitution to deny rights to a particular group of people objectionable.
The proposal's fate was nowhere near settled in the Judiciary Committee, which by tradition is a prime incubator for constitutional change.
The amendment had been slated for consideration after the election, at the earliest.
But with their slender majority power increasingly threatened, G.O.P. strategists clearly hope to squeeze some Democrats -- Senator John Kerry included -- who are wary or nuanced about the issue to provide attack-ad scripts for the campaign.
Senator Frist concedes that there are not enough votes for passage. But he insists that heterosexual marriage is under such attack that there's an urgent need to leap directly to a debate.
"Every day I put it off, more people get married," Dr. Frist said in explaining the sudden rush.
Imagine, more people getting married before they can be constitutionally discriminated against.
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