project, repealing Women's suffrage.....
I sure do like McCain though......
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug White [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:11 PM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: Re: Senate rejects move to ban same-sex marriage
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/14/samesex.marriage/index.h
> tml
>
>
> Early push for constitutional amendment falls short
> Wednesday, July 14, 2004 Posted: 2:06 PM EDT (1806 GMT)
>
>
> WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Efforts to pass a constitutional amendment
> banning same-sex
> marriage foundered Wednesday afternoon when the proposal failed to
> garner enough
> votes in the Senate to stay alive.
>
> After final arguments by the leaders of each party, Republicans
> mustered 48
> votes, 12 short of the 60 they needed to overcome a procedural hurdle
> and move
> the proposed amendment to the floor.
>
> "In 217 years, we've only amended that sacred document 17 times," said
> Sen. Tom
> Daschle, D-South Dakota, before the vote. "There have been 11,000
> separate
> attempts."
>
> Daschle said no urgent need exists to amend the Constitution now.
>
> But Sen. Bill Frist disagreed. "It has become clear to legal scholars ...
that
> same-sex marriage will be exported to all 50 states," said the majority
> leader,
> from Tennessee.
>
> "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."
>
> Republicans originally had expected they would win a majority, if not the
> 67
> votes required for the 100-member body to pass a constitutional
> amendment.
>
> In doing so, they were seeking to force the Democrats' presumed
> presidential
> ticket -- Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North
> Carolina -- to go on the record in opposition to the amendment.
>
> But in the last two days, a number of Republicans indicated they
> wouldn't vote
> for the measure, leaving GOP leaders red-faced over their failure to
> muster
> support.
>
> Sen. John McCain of Arizona broke forcefully with President Bush and the
> Senate
> GOP leadership Tuesday evening over the issue, taking to the Senate
> floor to
> call such a constitutional amendment unnecessary -- and un-
> Republican.
>
> "The constitutional amendment we're debating today strikes me as
> antithetical in
> every way to the core philosophy of Republicans," McCain said. "It usurps
> from
> the states a fundamental authority they have always possessed and
> imposes a
> federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts
> them."
>
> McCain also 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."
>
> "The founders wisely made certain that the Constitution is difficult to
> amend
> and, as a practical political matter, can't be done without overwhelming
> public
> approval. And thank God for that," he said.
>
> McCain sided with opponents of the amendment on the procedural
> vote.
>
> Bush, who defeated McCain for the Republican presidential nomination
> in 2000,
> has championed the amendment, saying it is necessary to defend the
> institution
> of marriage from "activist judges."
>
> Social conservatives have been pushing hard for the measure since May,
> when
> Massachusetts' highest court legalized same-sex marriages in the Bay
> State.
>
> But McCain argued that there are "far less draconian" remedies,
> including the
> 1996 Defense of Marriage Act -- which defined marriage for purposes of
> federal
> law as a union between a man and woman and allowed states to refuse
> to recognize
> same-sex marriages legally performed in other states -- and state
> constitutional
> amendments limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.
>
> He said if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down DOMA or "state remedies
> to
> judicial activism fail," then amending the federal Constitution might be
> "appropriate." But he said the Massachusetts decision to legalize same-
> sex
> marriages does "not represent a death knell to marriage."
>
> "What evidence do we have that states are incapable of further
> exercising an
> authority they have exercised successfully for over 200 years?" McCain
> said. "We
> will have to wait a little longer to see if Armageddon has arrived."
>
> Kerry and Edwards weren't on hand for Wednesday's procedural vote.
> Kerry was in
> Boston, and his running mate was campaigning in Iowa.
>
> The amendment, as originally proposed by Republican Sen. Wayne
> Allard of
> Colorado, would have added 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.
>
> Democrats blocked a last-ditch effort by Republicans to bring up a
> second
> version of the amendment that might have garnered more support.
>
> Still, Republicans have vowed that they will make same-sex marriage a
> political
> issue.
>
>
>
>
>
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