Senate may try to repeal Defense of Marriage Act

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

A day after President Barack Obama endorsed gay marriage, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested Thursday that Democrats may move to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the Clinton-era law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

Such a move would energize the liberal base and provide a contrast to House Republicans, who passed their own measure this week aimed at bolstering DOMA.

But it could also alienate conservative Democrats in the middle of an election year.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2012/05/senate-may-try-to-repeal-defense-of-marriage-act-123110.html

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I wouldn't want to be Scott Brown if that happens...

[Kurska]

1. Yes it is political theater

But damn it feels good to be pandered to for once.

[emulatorloo]

2. Comment section will curl your hair

Too bad you have to join Facebook to comment, or I would spend some time ripping into some of those deranged wingnuts.

[brooklynite]

3. You don't have to...

You can set up a standalone account for free

http://dyn.politico.com/registration.cfm

[longship]

4. Political theater? Maybe not.

I would call it riding a wave. Can you think of a better time to bring this forward? Even if it fails it becomes all the more coal to shovel into the fire, which, if you haven't noticed, is already burning quite brightly.

[Tx4obama]

5. Also the Senate announced today: Senate ENDA Hearing Set for June 12

Info here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/125136605

[freshwest]

6. What's really sad going to that link, is that we once had an effective EEOC that addressed

These areas of discrimination and were making great progress during the Carter years. Then came Reagan and he undid all of it by filling the agencies that were making the changes in society with a lot of corporatist, regressives determined to undermine all the progress that had taken half a century to make.

And now the folks are so brainwashed they think that Carter and FDR were bad. For every generation, another battle against the forces that want to drag us back to feudalism. It never ends.

[azurnoir]

7. DOMA should end needs to end

HtH do defend marriage by preventing people from getting married

[red dog 1]

8. Can this Repeal overcome a filibuster?

[brooklynite]

9. Of course not...

...it becomes a campaign issue and an embarrassment to the "moderate" Republicans beholden to Mitch McConnell.

[sofa king]

10. No, and I think that is the point.

I think the intent of revisiting the Defense of Marriage Act is to nail the Republicans down on this issue in this particular election year.

I don't pretend to know precisely what is going on with this sudden reappearance of the gay marriage issue (except that I'm delighted to see the President's shift), but I am certain that President Obama and Senator Reid are working together on it. They have worked closely and efficiently together this past 18 months, with unusual success despite Republican delay at every turn.

Here's what I think is going on. I think the President has concluded, only days into the de facto general election season, that his own reelection is in the bag and that he can now concentrate his focus on the real problem this year: the Senate must be retained by the Democrats, but 23 Dems are up for reelection against only 10 Republicans.

I further think that President Obama has come around to the idea of what I call the "Don't F#$% with the Jesus" strategy, after that enchanting scene from The Big Lebowski. He appears to be trying to wrest the gay marriage issue from the Republicans and turn it on them.

What confuses me is that gay marriage has been the clarion call for conservative voters for ten years now. It was Karl Rove's baby. It was the carrot designed to draw the knuckle-draggers from their caves on election day. And it worked like a charm, providing a wisp of plausibility to defend the statistically improbable 2004 election results.

So for the President and the Senate to revive this issue now, there must be some mechanism at work that I do not yet understand.

My best guess at the moment is this: perhaps the Obama Campaign has concluded that Mitt Romney is going to produce a net negative turnout for Republicans, keeping those otherwise enthusiastic homophobes away on election day and allowing the President and Dems to pursue a far more liberal platform than they otherwise would be able to pursue against a more viable candidate.

Senate elections are statewide and sometimes they follow the results of the Presidential elections quite closely. If the President draws his voters out, and Romney keeps his voters home, Republican Senate candidates and incumbents suddenly find themselves without a rock to hide under. Pinning down Republican Senators on gay marriage might be fixing them as targets for the motivated voters who do show up at the polls on Election Day: people with consciences, ethics and empathy--in other words, not Republicans.

One of the things that has convinced me that President Obama is the most astute politician of my lifetime is his unusual ability to turn a terrible idea against its supporters and profit from the damage that it causes them.

I still have no idea how exactly he is going to pull this one off... but I can't wait to see!

[sofa king]

11. I think TX4Obama may have already spotted it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/125136967

If Andrew Sullivan is to be believed, a GOP pollster has spotted a swing of opinion on gay marriage that is accelerating. Heheheheheh.

[red dog 1]

14. I remember that scene from The Big Lebowski, and I also remember that

Lebowski, like many millions of Americans, smoked pot.
I support President Obama; but I would not call him "astute".
His broken promise "not to go after medical pot dispensaries" is far from astute
He is likely to lose millions of votes solely because of these ridiculous "pot club raids"
As far as his other campaign promises, he does OK.
He's broken 14% of his promises and kept 36%.
But he needs to re-think his heavy-handed attitude towards medicinal pot dispensaries, or he might just find himself is a much tighter race come November.

On his campaign promises:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/

[sofa king]

15. The weed thing could break the same way, but....

That is also an issue that is changing quickly, quite possibly with an increasing rate of change.

However, I'm not being as hard on the President as others here have been on this issue. The President seems to feel that non-enforcement of the law is not an option. He may be right.

Indifference to and non-enforcement of the law was a hallmark of the Bush Administration, from the IRS to the EPA and everywhere else that Karl Rove couldn't make a buck. During the Bush years I looked in to whether or not non-enforcement is even legal, and my conclusion was that in many cases, it might not be.

This President may have reached a similar conclusion.

The difference between weed and gay marriage is this: Republicans aren't lining up to marry people of the same sex, but a shitload of them are high right now. One of the things that makes conservatives different from liberals is comfort within hypocrisy. Republican pot-smokers don't care if weed is legal or not; they have already justified what they do and as always feel the law doesn't apply to them.

Certainly every pot smoker knows a Republican who was busted and got completely indignant about it. They'll be the same way if they see their habit on the ballot. It doesn't have to be legal as long as someone else goes to jail for it, and since white people are incarcerated far, far less for petty drug offenses than non-whites, everything is a-OK for them right now.

[red dog 1]

16. The important thing is that Obama gets re-elected,

"That is an issue that is changing quickly, quite possibly with an increasing rate of change"???
Where is your evidence of this?
This (Pot club raids) is NOT an issue that is "changing quickly".
It is an issue that has POTUS going against the wishes of three-quarters of American voters!

"National poll reveals unpopularity of Obama Administration interference in medical marijuana states. In a just-released poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, three quarters of American voters - 74 percent- want the Obama Administration to respect individual state medical marijuana laws."
http://digg.com/news/politics/poll_shows_74_of_americans_support_medical_marijuana

Also, as reported here at DU last week, Nancy Pelosi has "rebuked" Obama
for his medical pot raids
"President Barack Obama's emphasis on raiding medical marijuana dispensaries
drew a rebuke from none other than House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this week, who warned in a prepared statement that she has "strong concerns" about her ally's policy"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014112586

[sofa king]

17. Truth!

My guess that support for marijuana legalization is increasing, and may be increasing faster, is based only on my general observations, particularly the wildfire popularity of "legal weed" before it was banned last year, and the increasing number of states which have relaxed its marijuana laws in positive ways. Unlike the gay marriage issue above, I've seen no cogent analysis about that.

No matter what, I think you are absolutely right that if the President continues in this heavy-handed way he risks creating a counterbalance of negative opinion which will reverse the gains that this prescient endorsement of gay marriage creates.

The important thing to remember is that historically, Congress has been the ultimate source of authority over marijuana, and it asserts a tax and licensing authority over it. That means that the key to legalization is to create a majority in favor of it in both wings of Capitol Hill.

Which suggests that marijuana decriminalization in Congress could be a hot-button issue in the mid-term elections of 2014, at the very time when Democrats may find themselves within striking distance of a supermajority in the Senate.

So like I said, I don't expect to see any substantive change from the President this year, but next year and the year after that? Eh, it might have legs if the legalization lobby starts planning for it now.

But this President always manages to think the problems through a lot better than I do, so don't take my word for it!

[red dog 1]

18. Obama can stop the pot club raids with a couple of phone calls to

Attorney General Holder & the DEA.

He does not need Congressional approval to do this.
It's Executive Action, pure & simple!

I'm not talking about "legalization" or even 'decriminalization" of marijuana.

That would need Congressional approval and is probably several years off.

I'm saying, as are MANY Democrats in high places, (like Nancy Pelosi,) that Obama MUST cease these wasteful, stupid raids on legal medical marijuana dispensaries; or he is going to find himself out of a job come January 20, 2013.

There are millions of voters who will simply stay home this November, Democrats & Independents mostly, if he continues (as you put it) "his heavy-handed way"
and continues to waste DOJ & DEA resources on trying to make it harder for medical pot patients to get their "medicine' in those states which have approved medical marijuana

The DEA & DOJ should only raid those pot growers who are in violation of federal AND state law, since they are definitely committing illegal acts, and they SHOULD be prosecuted.
There are plenty of these huge illegal pot gardens, many on government land, with booby traps & guards with guns etc...THESE guys need to be caught & prosecuted, not the legal, state sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries.

"Nineteen states have legalized medical cannabis or effectively decriminalized it.
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Washington D.C."
(Wikipedia)

Note that many of these states are "blue" states, and if millions of Dems & Independents stay home, then the Republicans might will win many "safe" Democratic Congressional seats, as well as some Senate seats + a few governorships too.

Obama HAS to know that to continue to raid these legal pot dispensaries is
essentially "giving aid and comfort to the Republicans."

THESE MEDICAL POT RAIDS MUST CEASE, or soon we will be talking about our new leader,
President Willard Mitt Romney, and possibly a totally Republican Congress as well.

[shcrane71]

12. Won't the House need to repeal DOMA as well? And it's in Republican control.

I don't understand procedure on these things. If the Senate can repeal it without the House, then do it already.

[davidpdx]

13. If it had a chance of passing I would be for trying

Clearly it would never get past the 60 votes for a filibuster in the US Senate nor would it have a chance of passing the House.

[gratuitous]

19. As that brilliant philosopher once intoned, "THAT is why you fail"

You think every hare-brained scheme the Republicans come up with gets through? Not just no, but hell no. But they seed the ground. Nincompoop ideas like lower tax rates for hedge fund managers started off as total pipe dreams. But today, Mitt Romney's income from his days at Bain Capital are taxed at 15%, instead of 35% because of where that income originated. Working stiffs like you and me pay a much higher federal tax rate because we work for our money.

Will DOMA be repealed because of this initiative in the Senate? Not in 2012 and probably not for years to come. So why bring it up? For one, to seed the ground for an eventual repeal. For another, to put the Republicans on the hot seat for November. Will they betray their base or pander to the nutjobs? Either way, Republicans know they're going to alienate some voters who might consider voting for them in November. By bringing up a repeal of DOMA, Democrats are not going to lose too many votes; single issue voters whose single issue is being against marriage equality probably aren't going to switch to the Republican side, as they're already there.

[24601]

20. What? Repeal Bill Clinton's 3rd most fameous legislation, after DATD and Welfare

"Reform"?

It would indeed be interesting to see a vote. Certainly not a given with Senate races coming up in the more conservative states.