The Federal Marriage Amendment is back — with Vitter’s and Craig’s support
Just this week, a group of Republican senators re-introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, which, as we know, would ban gay marriage.
And once again, the language is pretty straightforward:
Section 1. This article may be cited as the `Marriage Protection Amendment’.
Section 2. 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.’.
This isn’t especially surprising. Republicans are looking at the political landscape, and they’re feeling awfully discouraged. The polls look bad, the base looks depressed, and fundraising looks iffy. Rallying the far-right troops with an anti-gay amendment to the Constitution — even though it has no chance at even getting so much as a hearing — might be helpful to the conservative movement.
But the funny part is looking over the list of the 10 original sponsors. Most of the names are predictable — Brownback and Inhofe, for example — but there are two others whose names stand out: Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho).
Yes, two of the principal sponsors of a constitutional amendment to “protect” marriage include one far-right Republican who hired prostitutes and another far-right Republican who was arrested for soliciting gay sex an airport men’s room.
As my friend Kyle put it, these two are “not exactly the poster boys of the family values crowd or particularly upstanding examples of the supposed sanctity of the ‘union of a man and a woman.”‘
Republicans…the “Do As I Say” party.
Oh, if only they could focus on the country and not my (or anyone else’s bedroom(s)). Nah. That’s too much work.
Oh please….
“Roget’s Thesaurus” is going to have to put a new synonym under the entry for Hypocrite – Republican.
I guess it explains why there are Wearing Diapers with Hookers and Trolling in Mens Bathroom Amendments in the Act.
Back in high school debate class, we always had some heated arguments over the influence of religion in our government. Besides the tried and true smackdown, our country’s laws are based on the constitution and NOT the bible, I remember also using the phrase “You can’t legislate morality”.
Ah, to be back to the good old days where reason actually trumped BULLSHIT.
And to think they were once the “party of ideas.”
anyone who needs to ‘believe’ in the corporate ‘time’ poll might as well pull their pants down, bend over, spread’um, and scream next .. to whom .. hmm, let’s say brian williams …
I shouldn’t be surprised any more by the extent of Republican hypocrisy, but it seems that they surpass themselves almost daily.
Larry Craig is not Gay.
Larry Craig has never been Gay.
Larry Craig has a wide stance.
I would make a joke about wide stances but the situation is too much of a bad joke to make a bad joke about it.
“..shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than..”. Is that a reference to civil unions? Entirely academic, but how mean can you get?
Wow, all we need is a flag burning amendment and the “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance debate and we’ll know everything we need to to make an informed decision on election day.
Yep. The economy is going down for the third time, we’re fighting two wars, the price of oil is still rising and the corn crops are fucked.
Obviously the only remedy is to shove a little bigotry into the Constitution.
Pa-fucking-thetic.
Sure they are. The only people who ever squawk about family values and the sanctity of marriage are scofflaws, perverts and hypocrites. Craig & Vitter display all three qualities.
Looks like another issue where John McCain will have to debate himself. Maybe if we’re lucky he’ll punch himself in the face a few times.
Seriously though, the Republicans are especially desperate this year because they have betrayed their own base. If we can get that fact into the collective meme, then all the desperate antics the Republicans pull in the runup to the election will be understood as more evidence of their desperation, so any stupid crap like this amendment will only engender a backlash from moderates rather than an increase in support from conservatives, who we should always remind them, have been played for chumps.
Oh, would that someone would propose the following amendment:
Good old Republicans! Always trying to legislate discrimination into the Constitution.
Someone should ask vitter if his wife changes his soiled diapers as part of their sactified marraige or if that is a guilty pleasure reserved for the “hired help”?
And Craig…a sad, pathetic, old queen.
Tell you who you can marry and what you can do in your bedroom but don’t dare tell them what they have to do with their money.
Grandstanding hypocrites. Next they will try to get Petraeus to sign onto the bill so it will be blessed.
Policy making in congress wastes a lot of time and tax payer money on such antics.
IDEA: Why don’t some Democrats propose an amendment banning subsidies for oil companies? All the Republicans would HAVE to vote against it. And, with gas at four bucks, it’ll be political suicide.
Four years on, and more acceptance of civil unions if not gay marriage, and I think this is a losing strategy nowadays.
“Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to …”
I like how the small government folks want to tell the states how to interpret state constitutions.
Bravo Racer X!
Conservative values voters have been utterly abused by the Repuglicans, who pandered and pretended that their issues were significant to them so that they could pursue an agenda mostly absent of any real Christian values, like tax cuts for the super rich and corporations, their “base.”
Like the boy who cried wolf, I think the GOP is going to be surprised. Regardless of the GOP’s patronizing attitude, fundamentalist christians aren’t stupid. While, like all the rest of us, they can be deceived by good enough con-men playing on their hopes or fears, they’re waking up to the “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” reality. They’re starting to see that these bogus initiatives are calculated lies whose only purpose is to get them out to the polls and vote GOP, nothing else.
Especially when one of the sponsors is a closeted T-Room Troll (gayspeak for someone who lurks in a public bathroom looking for sex), and another a committed and public serial philanderer.
Just a correction, Craig was not just arrested, he was convicted of soliciting gay sex
Mark Foley is no longer able to cosponsor, but I understand he and Ted Haggard will be making appearances to promote the Amendment at boys’ schools around the country.
I would have been so disappointed if these two weren’t co-sponsors. I mean, really, it would have utterly shattered my assumptions about bloviating “pro-family” Republicans. All is right with the world.
This proposed amendment completely misses a group. Transgendered individuals. Will every pair of applicants for marriage licenses be required to provide DNA so that their chromosomes prove their birth sex?
Also, if the proposed amendment is fully fleshed out, it might not be able to be published in MSM or most widely disseminated media, as this amendment would have to be very explicit about what legally constitutes a male, and what legally constitutes a female human being, anatomically, emotionally, genetically, etc. It boggles the mind, but the ultra-righties don’t have to worry; they won’t be “boggled” because they’re mindless.
Both Craig and Vitter should introduce a bill “Protection of marriage from Sex”, so that marriage cannot be jeopardized because of having sex with others!!!
Hoo, boy–what better poster boys for valuing the family, huh? I think I’ve stepped through the looking glass.
Man that’s like Carlin and Bruce trying to pass a mandatory laughing act…
( may those funny sob’s rest in riotous laughter )
Everytime you try to legislate morality for the appeasement of a fringe group -FAIL.
Don’t these wingnuts get it? This is pissing in the ocean to try and make it saltier.
Do unto other’s…let ye without sin cast the first stone….and by there love you shall know them….
Jesus didn’t just die for politicians, he died for everyone. What a bunch of jackasses.
Carpetbagger,
Since 1900 the term has been used more widely in the US to describe outsiders’ attempting to gain political office or economic advantage, especially in areas (thematically or geographically) to which they previously had no connection.
Obama,Clinton?
This makes total sense for Craig. He wouldn’t want his male lovers to start demanding that he marry them…
Woo! Getting a little hot in here, isn’t it boys? I feel a fire!
‘Methinks both Craig and Vitter “protests too much” . . . LOL
POLITICIANS NEVER CHANGE: always LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, AND WILL
“FUCK YOU” IF GIVEN A CHANCE.
There is something Zen like in the way that Vitter and Craig are able to “become one” with the bad joke. You almost have to admire it.
I refuse to leave my house with my wife for fear that some gays will attack our marriage. Oh the horror!!!
Craig is just trying to embrace his delusional thoughts that he is heterosexual…
A man on dog article would have been nice.
But maybe I just miss Santorum.
Tappity, tap, tap, tap!
Craig was convicted, not just arrested. These kinds of false acts do not change the fact that their Lord knows what they have done.
“Yes, two of the principal sponsors of a constitutional amendment to “protect” marriage include one far-right Republican who hired prostitutes and another far-right Republican who was arrested for soliciting gay sex an airport men’s room.”
LOL, I think you actually mean PLEAD GUILTY and WAS CONVICTED for soliciting gay sex in an airport men’s room.
Thanks for pointing out Craig and Vitter’s hypocrisy.
The hypocrisy is routine; but you would have thought they would have been sensitive to the sheer risibility of it.
Craig…….hm…..wasn’ he in the news recently? Trying to get an undercover cop to give him a blowjob in an airport men’s room? I guess he has something to prove…..wrong.
“Protect” marriage from what?
Poster boys for today’s Republican party….
Go Barack Obama.
“Protect” marriage from what? — Hadassah, @43
Damned if I know. I suspect that most Repubs don’t know, either. I think it’s just something to say to new acquaintances on the cocktail circuit…
With the country mired in an endless war and slipping into the economic abyss, it is comforting to know our leadership continues to apply themselves to our country’s most threatening issues. It’s a sign of just how aloof and out of touch our beltway elite have become.
In California, it seems like the anti-gay-marriage crowd is taking a new tack – they’re being more-or-less quiet at the moment. I think all the news footage of all the happy couples would have made them look bad by contrast if they had made TOO much noise. We’re less than 5 months from November though, and I’m wondering if their strategy is to stay quiet “in public” to make supporters of gay marriage think there’s nothing to worry about, while whipping up frenzies in gay-unfriendly churches and rural areas. I overheard one guy saying that he didn’t want to see “homosexuals running rampant in the streets” all over California “like they do in Massachusetts” and wondering exactly which news network he saw this on… I hate to say it, though, but the amendment might just pass in California. I was disappointed when prop 22 passed here all those years ago, but I suppose people want to find SOMETHING to do… And it’s easier to slap down the gay people than do anything about gas prices or the economy (which, in California, gay marriage is really helping!)
Yes! This is the sort of leadership that would justify John McCain choosing Larry Craig as his running mate aboard the Minnesota-bound Straight Talk Express. Take a Stand with McCain & Craig. Put Your Best Foot Forward With McCain & Craig.
regardless of what they feel about same sex marriage… i thought republicans were supposed to be all about states rights and a small federal government. so what happened? These people are content to let states set some of their own environmental standards (even though pollutants cross jurisdictional boundares quite easily) but when it comes to a family values issue, now all of a sudden we need a CONSTITUTIONAL AMMENDMENT?!?!! Fucking ridiculous use of their time and our money.
And McCain now getting behind an Arizona gay ban!
http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=1918&mediaType=1&category=26
all it says is that state’s constitutions or the national constitution cannot be made to require gay marriage being legal.
meaning any state, or congress for that matter, could still easily pass a bill legalizing (or banning) it.
I’m not sure the the title hypocrite is appropriate for Craig– more married gays means there are less for him to do in the mens room. Banning gay marriage is perfectly in line with his own lifestyle choices.
Is there a hypocrisy lifetime achievement award?
Conservative republican “values” meet vacuous, inane piffle extraordinaire….
I actually choked when I saw this headline. Are you kidding me?
Wasting money is what the Republicans do best! They have tried this already and it failed, why would they think it would pass now… And for Dumb Ass Larry Craig to be in on the support of it, when he is a major BATHROOM player, lol. I’m sure we could find him at the local Glory Hole spot, don’t you think. He and others like him give our community a bad name. I say that they all can go FUCK themselves and each other…
I was in the Minneapolis airport about that time, and watched my step very closely.I am used to getting screwed by the government, but not a blow job. Lol.
The Lifetime Award was already given to the Carpetbagger Hypocrites – Slick Willie and The Hildabeast!
Troll Alert.
A Larry Craig supporter has been spotted on the Board accusing the humble commenters of this here website of Hypocrisy.
How so, our family values loving Larry Craig supporting friend?
Pray tell Troll?