Gay Bashing Amendment goes down in FLAMES

Well, we did it. The anti-gay marriage amendment went down in flames today in the US Senate. In a nutshell, the Republicans screwed up big time in their strategy. They figured the Democrats would filibuster the vote and would run in fear from a final vote on the amendment. In fact, the Dems turned around at the beginning of the debate and said "heck, let's vote on the entire thing right now." The Republicans flipped out.

Basically, the Dems knew they had the votes, and more importantly, knew that moderate Republicans were starting to get ticked with their leadership in both the House and Senate about the Congress spending so much time on this amendment - an amendment that was bound to lose. The party leaders felt that the amendment would help them with the far-right wackos, but they failed to realize that this would NOT help them with moderate and independent voters who are more worried Iraq, the economy and gas prices.

Below is the final tally on the vote to "invoke cloture" - i.e., the vote is more-or-less whether to STOP a filibuster (even though there WAS no filibuster, this vote still is a vague reflection of where the Senators stand on the amendment - YES perhaps shows support for the amendment, NO almost certainly means the Senator opposes the amendment). Once you fail to stop a filibuster, the amendment is dead - again, there was no filibuster here, so the entire thing is a bit weird - basically the Republicans want to claim the Dems filibustered the amendment when they didn't. Hell, the Dems would still permit them to have an up or down vote on the amendment even AFTER today's vote - the Republicans have simply run scared.

But first here are a few of the interesting votes - i.e., either Senators who crossed party lines, or Senators who surprised us with their vote (i.e., Specter decided to vote anti-gay).

OVERALL VOTE: 48-50

VOTED YES - VOTED TO STOP A FILIBUSTER (Doesn't necessarily mean they support the amendment)
Miller - D-GA
Ben Nelson - D-NE
Byrd - D-WV
Specter - R-PA

NO - VOTED AGAINST STOPPING FILIBUSTER (Probably does mean that they oppose the amendment)
Sununu - R-NH (I know, very weird, but I swear I heard it - will double check)
Collins - R-ME
Chafee - R-RI
Mccain - R-AZ
Campbell - R-CO