Bush plans to ammend the Constitution

[Brandon]

Andrew Sullivan's in an interesting position these days. This amendment fiasco has really given him a clear indication of how little his rights matter to the administration he's been blindly supporting.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Looks like this is becoming ever and ever more unlikely to happen, and in the process, Bush has simply started a wild fire with the issue that is spreading beyond San Francisco. Then again, IMO, this was never intended to happen. This was merely a political volley ball that Bush needed to throw out there in order to show that it isn't HE who opposes this, but merely the corrupt Democrats and the U.S. Congress (not to mention most state houses, even Georgia's).

From politics1.com:

"GAY MARRIAGE BAN AMENDMENT APPEARS DEAD IN US SENATE. The US Constitution places many obstacles in the path of proposed amendments, including the requirement that each house of Congress approve the amendment by a 2/3 vote and that 3/4 of the states ratify it by similar votes. That said, it takes just 34 votes in the US Senate to kill the proposed amendment to ban gay marriage endorsed by President Bush. It now appears that there are well more than 34 Senators on record as saying they will not support a constitutional amendment. Many are opponents of same-sex mariage, but they either oppose the concept of placing an issue like this in the US Constitution or maintain an amendment isn't currently needed. Don't believe us? You can look their names up in online searches of news stories. Here are the names of the 45 announced amendment opponents (or those saying that leaning strongly against the amendment): Lamar Alexander (R-TN), George Allen (R-VA), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Joe Biden (D-DE), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), John Breaux (D-LA), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Edwards (D-NC), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Bob Graham (D-FL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dick Lugar (R-IN), John McCain (R-AZ), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Harry Reid (D-NV), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John Warner (R-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Dems who have yet to announce their views -- but are likely to oppose the amendment -- include some traditional liberals like Dan Akaka (D-HI), Mark Dayton (D-MN), Dan Inouye (D-HI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Even some uncomitted Republicans who would be expected to support it seem to be leaning against the amendment. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) -- a conservative who says he strongly opposes gay marriage -- said he was "very cool to the idea of an amendment.""

[theapportioner]

Hey Kev, do you know of any good sites that keep a tab on what bills before congress are subject to debate, and when?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Congress.org isn't all that bad. You can do searches based on issue and stuff. I used to check out another website where you could search by issue, bill #, committee, and/or those who were endorsing it. But for the life of me, I can't recall which site that was. If I remember I'll let you know, but Congress.org is pretty cool....

EDIT: Ooh, the Library of Congress site isn't too bad, either: thomas.loc.gov