ENDA Showdown In The Senate

This hypocritical old queen isn't changing his mind on ENDA

This evening, the Senate will once again take up ENDA, the bill that would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. I say "once again," because the Senate tried to pass this once before-- September 10, 1996. It failed, only 49 senators voting yes, 50 voting no and one, Mark Pryor (D-AR) ducking the vote entirely. It's worth noting that this year, Pryor and every other Democrat has already announced that they are supporting the legislation. But back then the "no" votes included 5 Democrats who were either bigots or too cowardly to do the right thing: Harry Byrd (D-WV), James Exon (D-NE), Wendell Ford (D-KY), Howell Heflin (D-AL) and Sam Nunn (D-GA).

It's also worth noting that back then 8 Republicans also voted for ENDA: Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI), William Cohen (R-ME), Al D'Amato (R-NY), Mark Hatfield (R-OR), Jim Jeffords (R-VT), Alan Simpson (R-WY), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Arlen Specter (R-PA). None of the Democrats who voted NO and none of the Republicans who voted YES are still in the Senate. However, 8 Republicans who voted NO in 1996 will be voting again tonight. Has God seen fit to make any of them less bigoted with the passage of 17 years?

• Dan Coats (R-IN)
• Thad Cochran (R-MS)
• Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
• John McCain (R-AZ)
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
• Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Because of zombie GOP obstructionism, the Senate no longer requires 51 votes to pass ENDA. The Republicans-- remake or no remake-- are officially filibustering the bill and Harry Reid needs too cobble together 60 votes to pass it. Orrin Hatch has seen the light on this and supported it in committee this year. He and 3 Republican colleagues have publicly declared that they;'re voting yes. One is Lisa Murkowski, whose father, Frank Murkowski (R-AK) was one of the GOP votes that killed the bill in '96. The other two are Republican co-sponsors are Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mark Kirk (R-IL). One more vote will do the trick and in recent days there have been rumblings both from Bob Portman (R-OH) and John McCain (R-AZ) that they're thinking about helping break the filibuster.

Yesterday, the Washingtion Post asserted that if senators listened to their constituents, they bill would pass-- and pass overwhelmingly.

Nearly all recent opinion polls indicate that a large majority of the American public-- more than 70 percent-- supports efforts to make employment discrimination against gay men and and lesbians illegal. Of course, these national numbers are not what the senators are likely to care about. However, when we use national polls to estimate opinion by state, we find that majorities in all 50 states support ENDA-like legislation (note that in 1996, majorities in only 36 states supported ENDA). Today, public support ranges from a low of 63 percent in Mississippi to a high of 81 percent in Massachusetts.

Intensity of opinion also favors ENDA-- people who “strongly favor” a ban on employment discrimination outnumber those who “strongly oppose” it in every state, usually by 20 percentage points or more.

Aside from Mississippi, the states with the weakest support are Utah, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska-- all even those states all have majorities favoring ENDA. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), John McCain (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Dean Heller (R-NV), Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Chuck Grassely (R-IA) all represent states where public support is huge, over 70% in each state-- and 77% in Ayotte's New Hampshire. The Post expects Reid to break the filibuster and pass the bill, though not with great margins. Rubio, for example, is far too scared of the teabaggers after he strayed off their narrow path over immigration, to do anything that veers from right-wing orthodoxy any time soon. [UPDATE: Dean Heller announced this morning, he's voting for ENDA, bringing the total to the needed 60 votes.]

Of course, even after a victory in the Senate, who thinks Boehner and Cantor will even allow a vote in the House. They'll try to breathe life back into the so-called Hastert Rule and then claim the teabaggers won't allow a vote. Imagine the pickle it would put Republicans in who are still trying to cling to mainstream districts. Voting for discrimination isn't going to hurt hate-mongers and kooks like Paul Broun (GA), Louie Gohmert (TX), Steve Scalise (LA) and Tim Huelskamp (KS) in hopelessly red districts. But NO votes would be another nail in the coffin of incumbents representing districts where you need independent voters to win elections, not just right-wing Republicans. No votes on ENDA could help Democrats end the careers are at least two dozen Republicans if they vote "no," these two dozen (although, one caveat-- Steve Israel refuses to allow the DCCC to engage several of these vulnerable Republican cronies of his). From most vulnerable:

• Gary Miller (R-CA)
• David Valadao (R-CA)
• Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)
• Mike Coffman (R-CO)
• Rodney Davis (R-IL)
• Tom Latham (R-IA)
• Joe Heck (R-NV)
• Jon Runyan (R-NJ)
• Fred Upton (R-MI)
• Dave Reichert (R-WA)
• Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
• Jeff Denham (R-CA)
• Charlie Dent (R-PA)
• Reid Ribble (R-WI)
• Sean Duffy (R-WI)
• John Kline (R-MN)
• Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (R-NY)
• Jim Gerlach (R-PA)
• Erik Paulsen (R-MN)
• Patrick Meehan (R-PA)
• Scott Rigell (R-VA)
• Mike Rogers (R-MI)
• Buck McKeon (R-CA)
• Paul Ryan (R-WI)

All of these Republicans are in tough spots. Many are life-long on-the-record bigots. Others are worried that they could be vulnerable to Tea Party primaries if they vote yes. Of course, by not allowing a vote, Boehner and Cantor also save the hides of the tiny handful of homophobic Democrats still left in Congress: John Barrow (New Dem-GA), Mike McIntyre (New Dem-NC), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT) and Pete Gallego (New Dem-TX). But members of the LGBT community who support the DCCC and it's chairman's antigay recruiting agenda should ask themselves if conservative creeps like Steve Israel replicating himself with virulent homophobic assholes like Jennifer Garrison is any worse for LGBT equality than what John Boehner does.


UPDATE: ENDA Passes The Senate

The filibuster was ended with a strong 61-30 vote, Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Dean Heller (R-NV), Marc Kirk (R-IL), Bob Portman (R-OH), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) crossing the aisle to vote with all the Democrats. There were plenty of impassioned speeches during the debate-- but they were all for ENDA. Not even vicious homophobic bigots like Mike Lee, Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson wanted their words against the bill on the public record. There wasn't one word from the chicken-shit, anti-gay, far right peanut gallery.