WTF Is It Now?!?

Blah blah blah...*
With the war in Iraq over, the Middle East at peace, the borders secure and gas prices back to normal... huh? Oh yeah.

Undeterred by a decisive defeat in the Senate, House Republicans are moving ahead with a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, forcing lawmakers to take a stand just months before the election.

The vote, scheduled for Tuesday, will occur in a week devoted to several priorities of social conservatives - what House GOP leaders call their "American values agenda." Also on tap are a pledge protection bill and several Republican-backed stem cell bills.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin, a gay Democrat from Wisconsin, said the marriage amendment "certainly is a tool that the right wing is using, but I think it has lost the impact it had in 2004."

Baldwin said voters are more concerned about the war in Iraq, health care costs and gas prices and to a greater extent "are recognizing this time that these measures are politically motivated."

"We're heading into an election where the Republicans are in deep trouble," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group. "The outcome is not really a significant factor in all of this," he said of the House vote. "It's a move to appease a rapidly dwindling base."

*with apologies to Blah3.