finger pointing

NOM + Family Research Council Blame Republicans For Letting D.C.’s Gay Marriage Arrive Without a Fight

dnews cit chaffetz

Now that homosexual marriage has arrived in D.C. (with actual ceremonies able to begin tomorrow), it’s time to figure out who to blame — for letting this whole mess happen. Uh oh, looks like the Republicans are getting blamed by their own!

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican (pictured), led the effort to get Congress to step in and block the City Council’s gay marriage passage. It didn’t work, and now he’s angry with his fellow GOPers, which demonstrated a “weak and uncoordinated” effort to support inequality.

Outside social conservatives echoed Mr. Chaffetz’s comments about Capitol Hill Republicans. “I’ll be straight with you: I think they could have done more,” Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, said of Republican leaders. “We needed a vote, and we didn’t get one.”

Like other social conservatives contacted by The Washington Times, Mr. Brown expected Republicans to secure a vote in Congress that would delay implementation of the D.C. gay-marriage measure and pursue a ballot initiative to overturn the law. The fact that the Republicans failed to deliver was laid at the feet of many people.

In particular, Senate Republicans were blamed. Last month, Sen. Robert F. Bennett, Utah Republican, introduced legislation to rescind the D.C. Council’s Dec. 1 vote legalizing gay marriage and to put the issue before District voters in a citywide initiative. His bill (S.2980) attracted eight co-sponsors.

“I haven’t seen any effort by Senator Bennett to push the legislation, or by the Senate [Republican] leadership,” said Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council Action. Attempts to get comment from Mr. Bennett’s office were unsuccessful. Mr. McClusky and Mr. Brown said Senate Republicans should have used a parliamentary maneuver called Rule 14, which allows a bill to get a floor vote by the whole U.S. Senate without going through the cumbersome and time-consuming committee process. “I think it would have been a natural to allow an up-or-down vote,” Mr. McClusky added. “And yet I didn’t see any action.”

[Washington Times]

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