Senate rejects constitutional amendment banning gay marriage

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing an embarrassing defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hoped to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.\nSupporters knew they wouldn't achieve the two-thirds vote needed to approve a constitutional amendment, but they had predicted a gain in votes over the last time the issue came up, in 2004. Instead, they lost one vote for the amendment in a procedural test tally that ended up 49-48.\n"We were hoping to get over 50 percent, but that didn't happen today," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., one of the amendment's supporters. "Eventually, Congress is going to have to catch up to the wisdom of the American people or the American people will change Congress for the better."\n"We're not going to stop until marriage between a man and a woman is protected," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.\nWednesday's vote fell 11 short of the 60 required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally in the Senate. The 2004 vote was 50-48.\nSupporters lost two key "yes" votes -- one from Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who has changed his mind since 2004, and another from Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who did not vote this time because he was traveling with Bush.\nGregg said that in 2004, he believed the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in that state would undermine the prerogatives of other states, like his, to prohibit such unions.\n"Fortunately, such legal pandemonium has not ensued," Gregg said in a statement. "The past two years have shown that federalism, not more federal laws, is a viable and preferable approach."\nA majority of Americans define marriage as a union of a man and a woman, as the proposed amendment does, according to a poll out this week by ABC News. But an equal majority opposes amending the Constitution on this issue, the poll found.\n"Most Americans are not yet convinced that their elected representatives or the judiciary are likely to expand decisively the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a possible presidential candidate in 2008. He told the Senate Tuesday he does not support the \namendment.\nThe tally Wednesday put the ban 18 votes short of the 67 needed for the Senate to approve a constitutional amendment.\nBut the defeat is by no means the amendment's last stand, said its supporters.\n"I do not believe the sponsors are going to fall back and cry about it," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "I think they are going to keep bringing it up."\nThe House plans a redux next month, said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.\n"This is an issue that is of significant importance to many Americans," Boehner told reporters. "We have significant numbers of our members who want a vote on this, so we are going to have a vote."\nThe defeat came despite daily appeals for passage from Bush, whose standing is troubled by sagging poll numbers and a dissatisfied conservative base.\nThe Vatican also added muscle to the argument Tuesday, naming gay marriage as one of the factors threatening the traditional family as never before.\nDemocrats said the debate was a divisive political ploy.\n"The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution," said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2003. "A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law."\nIn response, Hatch fumed: "Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?"\nForty-five of the 50 states have acted to define traditional marriage in ways that would ban same-sex marriage -- 19 with constitutional amendments and 26 with statutes.\nThe amendment would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages. To become ratified, it would need two-thirds support in the Senate and House, and then would have to be ratified by at least 38 state legislatures.\nSeven Republicans, many from New England, voted to kill the amendment. They were Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins of Maine, Gregg, McCain, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and John Sununu of New Hampshire.\nBen Nelson of Nebraska, the only Democratic senator who supports the amendment, voted "yes." The only other Democrat to vote in favor of moving forward with an up-or-down vote Wednesday, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, opposes the amendment itself.