that there are more important and pressing issues to deal with goes without saying...
from various articles - the chances of this being passed is
ZERO - the votes aren't there. So why would the REPUBLICAN Congress and bush waste their time on this? Because they are losing their religious zealot base support - and that means it's time to throw them a tidbit.
I caught a brief segment on CNN yesterday - Situation Room - the spokesperson for some religious right group was very angry. Not because the issue of gay marriage was being brought up in congress - but rather he saw this as a bone being tossed to his/similar groups in order to prop up the base and get them to shut up.
It's a similar ploy regarding gas prices by offering the $100 to sit down and shut up.
Gay Marriage Amendment Getting a Presidential Push
Conservatives who think Bush has buried the issue denounce the planned event as a ruse.
By Maura Reynolds and Janet Hook
Times Staff Writers | June 3, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gay3jun03,0,3806086,print.story?coll=la-home-headlinesWASHINGTON — The campaign against gay marriage is scheduled to get the full White House treatment on Monday — words from President Bush in front of assembled VIPs and a bank of television cameras.
Such a carefully staged production aims to confer the grandeur of the office on the push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
But even before administration officials announced the event, some invitees denounced it as a sham.
"I'm going to go and hear what he says, but we already know it is a ruse," said Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, which opposes gay marriage. "We're not buying it. We're going to go and watch the dog-and-pony show, it's too little, too late."---snip---
Supporters acknowledge they have little hope of reaching the two-thirds threshold — 67 votes — the measure would need to pass in the 100-member Senate. They probably won't get the 60 votes needed to shut off debate and force an up-or-down vote on the proposal.
---snip---
Democrats say the reason for the push is to rally conservative activists in advance of this year's congressional elections.
"Our country faces great challenges: record high gas prices, skyrocketing healthcare costs and an intractable war in Iraq," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. "Yet instead of addressing these issues, Sen. Frist has chosen to put the politics of division ahead of real progress by pushing for a debate on a divisive amendment that will write discrimination into the Constitution."
But if pleasing a key element of the Republican Party is the aim, the effort doesn't appear to be working.
"Social conservatives are disappointed that there hasn't been more action on the issues that were highlighted in the 2004 election," said Gary Glenn, head of the American Family Assn. of Michigan.
He added: "Increasingly, social conservatives expect real action, not just politically timed attempts to motivate and organize the base."