The desk calendar in Sen. John McCain’s office must be from 1971, because McCain’s fears about the Employment Non-Discrimination act smell of that era. In comments to the Huffington Post, the Arizona Republican expressed concerns that civil rights legislation like ENDA often has bad outcomes, like busing, quotas and reverse discrimination. “Whether it imposes quotas, whether it has reverse discrimination, whether it has the kinds of provisions that really preserve equal rights for all citizens or, like for example, busing,” McCain said. “Busing was done in the name of equality. Busing was a failure. Quotas were a failure. A lot of people thought they were solutions. They weren’t. They bred problems.” Perhaps McCain is confusing ENDA with The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Or perhaps McCain hasn’t had an original idea about civil rights since the first Nixon administration, Just to show his bona fides, McCain insisted that “young people” (by which he means people who just qualified to join AARP) agree with him. “I think the young people know we do not need reverse discrimination, they don’t believe in quotas and they don’t believe in some of the programs we saw in the name of racial equality implemented in the past which turned out to be counterproductive,” he said. “Ask people in Boston if busing turned out to be a good idea.” Just go to your nearest senior center to pop that question. In the meantime, the momentum for ENDA in the Senate is accelerating. The New York Times tweets that Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and probably the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, will support ENDA. Manchin was the last Democrat to sign on to the legislation. Under the perverse supermajority tradition that Republicans have established in the Obama era, a bill needs 60 votes to pass. Otherwise, it faces the threat of a filibuster, and the threat alone can kill the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Washington Post Wednesday, “I’ve talked with Democrats and Republicans and I think we’ve got 60 now.” So ENDA may finally make it out of one chamber of Congress. No word yet on the plans for the House.
TIME MACHINE
John McCain Fears ENDA Will Lead To Quotas And Busing
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Cam
The absolute DESPERATION that bigots have to preserve their right to fire somebody because they don’t like something about their background is amazing.
2eo
Hands up who thinks McCain was better for America left in Vietnam. I mean really put them in the air, high as you can.
gjg64
“No word yet on the plans for the House.’
The House: Also known as the Elephant Graveyard…..or where good Bills go to die.
Kieran
Downright scary to think that this man could have been President of the United States.
Merv
How would busing even apply? He’s grasping at straws.
Cam
One of the people running his legislative agenda and his campaign was Mark Buse, a gay man.
So McCain sure doesn’t mind getting all his work done by “The Gays” he just doesn’t want them to have any rights.
jwrappaport
@2eo: My military friends always balk when I say that, but McCain is little more than a batty old fraud who is an embarrassment to the uniform.
AnnaMcManus
Johnny said I am impressed that you able to profit 9964 bucks in four weeks on the computer. top article>>> http://smal.ly/D40dg
Jim Hlavac
The Democrats controlled both House and Senate for 2 years — and they did nothing on Enda, DADT or DOMA — instead they waited until it was difficult if not impossible to pass — so they could use it as a political football to bash Republicans.
So, if the Democrats were all for us, and all for this legislation — why did they wait? And now, gays (and the LBTQA of course) are all gaga in happiness that the Dems do something, and mad at Republicans for doing nothing. When it really should be gays, lbtqa mad at Democrats for doing nothing when they had a chance.