Amendment to ban gay marriage tanks in the Senate:

In fact, Republicans lost support for a ban over the last time the issue came up for a vote, in 2004.

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.

Supporters 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.

Wednesday's 49-48 vote fell 11 short of the 60 required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally. The 2004 vote was 50-48.

Supporters lost two key "yes" votes — one from Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H., who has changed his mind since 2004, and another from Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., who did not vote this time because he was traveling with Bush.

Gregg 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.

"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."

John McCain managed to simultaneously oppose the ban and miss the point:

"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" ...

No, idiot: Most heterosexual Americans are not yet convinced that telling gay and lesbian Americans they cannot get married is more important than putting food on the table, finding a way to send their kids to college, and ending a war that has killed over 2,400 Americans for nothing.

Orrin Hatch gets the DUHHHH! vote for his response to Sen. Kennedy's assertion that the ban was an attempt to write bigotry into the Constitution:

"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."

In response, Hatch fumed: "Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?"

Uhhhhh... he's not suggesting; he's stating, Mr. Ringleader of the Bigots! Put a different way: Yes. And they are.