Sen. Claire McCaskill: a yes vote on Thune would have opened door to gay marriage in Missouri

[ccharles000]

Love how Claire McCaskill put 2+2 together on this one. She did vote against the Thune amendment yesterday, but the Senator from Missouri was more preoccupied with ensuring that there wasn't an additional precedent set that would allow reciprocity of another state's marriage license of a same-sex couple. This is unbelievably disappointing.

Sen. McCaskill says she was not against letting people carry concealed weapons. But she is against requiring one state to accept another state's laws that might differ from its own. She says it would be a foot in the door that could allow Vermont's laws on gay marriage to be enforced in Missouri, which has a constitutional provision against gay marriage.

Listen to McCaskill's comments here. At Show Me Progress, Clark cuts too much slack.

McCaskill's explanation for her "No" vote is that she thinks it's a "state's rights" issue, and further that "it is a foot in the door to allow the laws in Vermont on gay marriage" to be enforced here in Missouri.

What??? There are plenty of examples you could give of so-called "states rights" issues, like affirming the right of states to enforce stricter environmental regulation than the federal government, rather than citing the "right" of states to maintain the separate status of a minority. Let's remember that the slogan of "states rights" has been used throughout American history primarily to defend the institution of slavery and later the practice of segregation.

I don't think Senator McCaskill is a racist, nor do I think that she hates gay people. She has been good on issues like the hate crimes bill in the past. But just because she has generally had a good record in the past doesn't mean she gets off the hook for grasping for the example of gay marriage as a bogeyman. I certainly hope that she will make use of public channels (like Twitter) to make it clear that she respects the LBGT community here in Missouri and around the country.

Well she many not hate gay people, but she doesn't think that they deserve to be equal in all ways under the law. If she has a religious objection that's one matter, but we are talking about civil marriage and reciprocity in the same way a drivers license is recognized. What part of it does the Senator not understand? She needs to explain herself. Certainly she must have LGBT on her staff -- does she think that they are lesser human beings?

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12172/sen-claire-mccaskill-a-yes-vote-on-thune-would-have-opened-door-to-gay-marriage-in-missouri

[FrenchieCat]

1. Wow! That's pretty depressing for her to be so proud on this!

My daughter and her hubby are moving to Missouri next week.
It will be quite a change from Cambridge...although after that Gates incident,
perhaps not as much as I would have thought.

[MoJoWorkin]

3. Frenchie, as a life-long Missourian, I very much welcome your daughter

to come live here. We need as many liberal minded people as we can get. LOL. I have lived all my life in the conservative hell-hole that is Springfield, MO--home to the likes of John Ashcroft and Roy Blunt. It is the headquarters of the Assembly of God, and rednecks hillbilly racists abound. I am a white 64 year old grandmother who has always been out of place here, and proudly so.

My daughters both live in the St. Louis area. One is a teacher, and has finally bought a little house in Shrewsbury. The other is married and has my one granddaughter, and both she and her husband are electrical engineers who live in Edwardsville, IL (across the river from St. Louis Metro). I go up there to visit them all a lot.

St. Louis has it's problems, but definitely has more liberal areas than does outstate. Both my daughters were in that massive crowd at the Obama rally under the arch last fall. St. Louis, overall, was pro-Obama.

I hope your daughter and her husband will be happy in MO.

[depakid]

2. What an idiot

The deal here is preemption of state and local public safety laws. This bill would have skirted training or background requirements- subjecting them to the lowest common denominator.

Also- though the NRA won't say so- there's nothing to prevent neighboring states to pass reciprocity between themselves.

[PVnRT]

4. Huh? I thought she was in the progressive caucus

Maybe I'm mistaken on that. If she is, she doesn't belong there.

[Mass]

7. She is at best a centrist.

She thinks Waxman-Markey does too much.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Very disappointing McCaskill felt she need to demonize gay marriage to pander to her home state

[uponit7771]

6. WTF!?!? Another fundie nut dem, I'd love for these people to stay out of defining religion

[MyUserNameIsBroken]

8. Yeah, it's pandering

Trying to giver herself cover on the anti-gun vote (which WILL be used against her in 2012, trust me) with an egregious anti-gay distraction, hoping it cancels out in the minds of rural marginal supporters. It's discouraging.

Missouri is a tough state for us. It's always close here. And that means getting a true, across-the-board progressive elected statewide is pretty much impossible. Clare, for all her imperfections from where we stand(don't get me started on flag burning), won by only about 10K votes--that's a fraction of one percent. Obama lost by about that same fraction.

She is selectively progressive, which is another way of saying heartbreaking on some issues. But she's the best we can do right now, and improving the quality of the electorate is going to be a long, slow process. What do we do in such situations? What can we do?