IMHO you are getting hung up on proving and support your initially concluded point and as such you miss the forest for the trees.. It could be that Clinton was pandering. I would agree that MOST politicians are simply leaves blowing in the wind that will take the path of least resistance.
HOWEVER, while dismissing the spineless and unprincipled politicos I think you as well errantly dismiss the motivations of PEOPLE they were attempting to pander to.
As an example look at the Immigration Reform debate. The politicians who pander by seeking to build a border fence or hire more Border Patrol agents do so BECAUSE the laws already in place are not being enforced.
I would suggest that DOMA at its roots was a response to the clear and present danger of leftists IMPOSING a new definition of marriage around the country. A definition that as I mentioned before is in God's domain alone.
The country faces this question more and more now with Obama in office. WHAT do you do to oppose those that not only ignore the laws but as well subvert them. Write new laws? LOL!!!
Rest assured this and other issues are far from settled.
This issue is getting more and more “settled” by the day — but without any real consequence beyond what has already been in the works for a long time. Homosexuals are clamoring for the right to get married even as heterosexuals have been walking away from marriage for decades.