Republicans Filibuster Their Own Marriage Amendment

Support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage has gotten so thin among Senate Republicans that it is now clear that the amendment, should it come to a vote, won't get a simple majority of votes, let alone the two-thirds majority it would need to actually pass. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, GOP senators are now filibustering to keep their own amendment from being voted down in an embarassing defeat.

The disarray broke out just two days before Republican leaders had planned a politically sensitive vote to put senators on record about whether a constitutional amendment should declare that marriage remain the union of one man and one woman.

But instead of a landmark debate, Republicans found themselves filibustering their own amendment to stop it from coming to the floor on Wednesday for a straight up-or-down vote – out of fear that it might fail to get even 51 votes, much less the 67, or two-thirds majority, required to amend the Constitution.

Republicans apparently were taken by surprise when Democrats, sensing a huge victory, offered to lift their own objections and proceed to direct consideration of the measure. ...

Many also have expressed concern that the current wording of the Federal Marriage Amendment also would ban civil unions and domestic partnerships that are considered legal alternatives to marriage.

So amendment proponents, led by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., floated the idea of offering an alternative version that might allay some worries about civil unions and improve the vote count.

But Democrats refused to go along, noting that Republicans had already bypassed the regular committee process to get the amendment directly to the floor and now found themselves trying to rewrite the measure at the last minute. ...

Proponents, instead of agreeing to vote on the amendment, filed a motion to shut off debate, which is scheduled to be voted on Wednesday. The Senate needs 60 votes to end the debate and move the senators to an up-or-down vote on the amendment.