[muir_redwoods]

As currently constituted, there is no way 2/3 of the congress will vote for a protection of marriage amendment. This will never get to the states for ratification for years to come. It is being proposed now as a simple sop to the right wing base the republicans worry about losing.

People of traditional values are being led by the nose on this one so that they can be induced to forget the immigration issue, McCains treachery on free speech and the out-of-control spending of what I thought were fiscal conservatives.

We're being had

[thomaswest]

Re 24: As currently constituted, there is no way 2/3 of the congress will vote for a protection of marriage amendment. This will never get to the states for ratification for years to come. It is being proposed now as a simple sop to the right wing base the republicans worry about losing.

You are 100% correct. Frist knows perfectly well that there will never be 67 votes for this in the Senate, and there may not even be a majority of Republicans. It will probably not even pass the House with 2/3.

The entire exercise is a waste of time and money, simply for playing to the grandstand. As with religious opposition to inter-racial marriages, religious opposition to couples living togther "without benefit of clergy", opposition to women getting the right to vote, etc.*, in another generation or two, people will look back and wonder what the fuss was all about.

*(My father recalls that when he was a teen, preachers were railing against baby carriages, because "God intended that mothers' arms were meant for carrying babies"!)