Good things maybe

So, in case you've been living in a hole for the last 30 hours, yesterday the Separate and Unequal amendment (Hatch, Frist, "frothy mix" Santorum and some other senators) failed to even get to the level of a vote. Yesterday the senate had a roll call vote for Cloture on this amendment. The vote was 48 in favor, 50 opposed with two democrats abstaining (Kerry and Edwards both refused to vote so their "no" vote on an issue of procedure wouldn't be used against them in campaign) two democrats breaking ranks and voting yes, and four republicans breaking ranks and voting No. To win a vote for cloture, an issue must gain 60 votes in the Senate. Essentially it is a way to see if there is any way in hell that they can get the 68 votes needed to pass an amendment on to the state legislatures. Of course, even though the republicans technically lost this round in their eternal campaign to make government larger and more intrusive into the lives of the citizens (wait, isn't that supposed to be a democrat thing?), they were never trying to win. This was an entirely political maneuver. They brought this act up now both to deflect attention to Rumsfeld's war crimes, and Chaney's impending indictment on fraud and bribery charges as well as to make the repression of homosexuals an issue in the upcoming Senatorial election. Essentially, they were forcing Senate Democrats from conservative regions to either vote to discriminate against a traditionally liberal segment of the country or to face a much greater challenge this year when they come up for reelection. This is of course, what they are doing instead of tackling issues of import to our actual nation. Gods, Republicans are scum. But then we knew that already.