Anti-Marriage Equality Amendment Defeated in Senate

For all the Republicans' agita about the use of reconciliation to pass health care reform through the Senate, it appears that there's one area of public policy where they feel perfectly comfortable using that particular parliamentary procedure: blocking same-sex marriages. Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) offered an amendment to the Senate reconciliation bill on Tuesday that would have required the District of Columbia to hold a referendum to the recently enacted law granting same-sex couples equal marriage rights in the District. The amendment was defeated yesterday morning by a vote of 36-59 (AmericaBlog).