As Promised: The List

Better late than never, right? Okay, so technically, there wasn’t a vote on the actual merits of the amendment, just a failure to bring it to a vote. But since — with the exception of Kerry and Edwards, who are out campaigning — every senator took a stand on that issue, I’m calling ’em as I see ’em. And I love Patrick Leahy’s comment that Republicans “propose turning the Constitution of the United States from the fundamental charter preserving our freedoms into a kiosk for political bumper stickers.” Great line.

On a quick side note, I found it particularly amusing that the Log Cabin Republicans are saying they’re upset with Bush for supporting the amendment. Hello! You’re just getting upset now? Hey, I’m sympathetic, but you don’t exactly have a whole hell of a lot of credibiility. It’d be one thing if you called yourselves “Log Cabin Conservatives,” or something along those lines, but in your very name you’ve allied yourselves with a group that — and I’m not going to mince words here — actively hates you. Not dislikes you, but (on the whole) would be happier if you just died off; not that they’re actively going to kill you, but they’re not about to get in the way of God’s doing it (“Maybe the Lord brought down this plague [because] illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments,” and the like). Oh, I don’t mean that people who vote Republican necessarily hate you — after all, there are any number of issues at stake in a voting decision — but the Republican party as an organization long ago sold itself out to the extreme right-wing freaks. It started with big George’s pandering to them after losing to Pat Buchanan in New Hampshire, and gained momentum when Newt Gingrich took out his “contract on America,” but was pretty much a lock once little George got the GOP nomination. Now, to be fair, it would appear that the story that made such a big deal about this was a rebroadcast of an April story. Still, a little bit late to be blowing the whistle, there, guys.

And I’m not sure quite what to think of the campaign to out gay staffers of those who favor the amendment. It may not really be productive, but I don’t think “collaborators” throughout history have garnered a whole lot of sympathy when called on it. Judge for yourself, but I will point out the site to you: DearMary.com.

But without further ado, here are the villains of the hour — make sure to let them know just what you feel about them. (Seriously, do it — you have no idea how tough it was to track some of these e-mail addresses down.)

First we have our original bill sponsors, the lowest of the low: Wayne Allard, Sam Brownback, Thad Cochran, Larry Craig, Michael Crapo, Michael Enzi, Peter Fitzgerald, Bill Frist, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Inhofe, Jon Kyl, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell, good ol’ Zell Miller, Rick Santorum, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, and Jim Talent. Wouldn’t hurt to write ’em again, just to make sure they get the message (and if you didn’t write before, you owe two messages now — get busy).

Joining their Republican brethren are: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, George Allen and John Warner (who I used to think was okay for a Republican — no more) of Virginia, Robert Bennett of Utah, Christopher “Kit” Bond of Missouri, Jim Bunning of Kentucky, Conrad Burns of Montana, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Cornyn of Texas (man, this e-mail address was easily the most difficult to track down), Mike DeWine and Voinovich, George of Ohio, Elizabeth Dole (who I also used to respect) of North Carolina, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, John Ensign of Nevada, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Craig Thomas of Wyoming.

And crossing over the aisle (though what political benefit this lot of scum thinks it’ll get is beyond me): Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

So there’s the list. Time to get cracking...