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| Insiders claim that Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) has not altered
his position on the Federal Marriage Amendment and will continue to push for
its defeat should Republicans bring it up for a vote before the November election,
even if it is altered to clearly allow states to enact civil unions.
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
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has learned that backers of the FMA, including Hatch, were
considering introducing wide variations in wording of an FMA in an effort to
lure opponents into backing it.
“We saw this same blueprint played out in Massachusetts,” Jacques
said. She noted that supporters of a state constitutional ban on gay marriage
in that state added language to the proposed amendment that called for legalizing
civil unions in the state. The civil unions clause succeeded in winning over
several members of the state legislature, which was called to draft a constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage in the state.
The legislature passed the amendment, to the dismay of gay activists. Under
state law, it must come before the legislature again next year before going
to the voters in 2006 in order for it to become a part of the state constitution.
“That’s just what we don’t want to see happen in the U.S.
Senate,” Jacques said. “To us, there is no moderate or acceptable
language to an amendment to the Constitution” that bans same-sex marriage,
she said.
Foreman said he became greatly concerned when he asked several Senate Democrats
to issue a public statement saying they would vote against any and all versions
of an FMA that may emerge on the Senate floor this year.
“We were not able to get such a statement,” he said, leading him
to believe Senate Democrats were wavering on the issue.
But Trammell, who has worked as a campaign consultant to Senate Democrats
in the past, said few senators are willing to issue a blanket statement for
or against any legislation.
“That’s just not how the Senate works,” he said.
A spokesperson for Daschle did not return a call by press time.
Trammell and Jacques said Daschle has told them flatly that he will vote against
any form of an FMA and will work hard to persuade his Democratic colleagues
to defeat all forms of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
“Daschle is from a state where 53 percent of the voters are Republican
and only 37 percent are registered Democrats,” Trammell said. “Daschle
is with us thick or thin,” Trammell said, even though Republicans have
vowed to work for his defeat on the gay marriage issue. Daschle faces a tight
re-election of his own this November.
In other developments on the gay marriage front, a group of national Latino
organ
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