Hate Crimes Bill Scuttled in Senate
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| Also listed in: COEqual | Denver County | GLBT Progressives |
I hate it when I'm forced to agree with Republicans:
He's right. Senate sponsors of the bill attached it to the defense authorization bill supposedly to protect it from a stand-alone veto threat from Bush. But they attached it to a bill they know that Bush will veto anyway. That says to me that the Senate is not very serious about passing the hate crimes bill.
I'd rather see the hate crimes bill pass and be vetoed than to see it disappear because Senate Dems don't have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster on Iraq. Let the "moderate" Republicans keep running toward the burning barn on Iraq. Don't make America's GLBT citizens go along with them.
But Patrick Sammon, president of Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay group, accused Senate Democrats of holding the hate crimes bill "hostage" to what he called their doomed attempt to force President Bush to change his policies on the war.
"The bottom line is the Democrats don't have the votes to pass their Iraq amendments," Sammon said. "Even if they did, everyone knows the president would veto the bill."
He's right. Senate sponsors of the bill attached it to the defense authorization bill supposedly to protect it from a stand-alone veto threat from Bush. But they attached it to a bill they know that Bush will veto anyway. That says to me that the Senate is not very serious about passing the hate crimes bill.
I'd rather see the hate crimes bill pass and be vetoed than to see it disappear because Senate Dems don't have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster on Iraq. Let the "moderate" Republicans keep running toward the burning barn on Iraq. Don't make America's GLBT citizens go along with them.
What credibilty does Patrick Sammon have with the GLBT community and the issues of "hate crimes" bill and the Iraq War?
If the GLBT community mirrors society at large then there should be about three quarters of this population opposed to Iraq War and a large majority wanting to have a timetable to pull out American forces.
Patrick Sammon is not representative of the GLBT community. But he is representative of the obstructionist Republicans who are for continuing Bush's illegal war.