A salute to those Dems who had the guts to vote against DOMA ten years ago

[flpoljunkie]

--although President Bill Clinton lacked the requisite courage and signed the bill. Notice all Senators who voted against the bill were Democrats.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00280

Vote Number: 280 Vote Date: September 10, 1996, 02:42 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Bill Passed
Measure Number: H.R. 3396 (Defense of Marriage Act )
Measure Title: A bill to define and protect the institution of marriage.
Vote Counts: YEAs 85
NAYs 14
Not Voting 1


NAYs ---14

Akaka (D-HI)
Boxer (D-CA)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerrey (D-NE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Moseley-Braun (D-IL)
Moynihan (D-NY)
Pell (D-RI)
Robb (D-VA)
Simon (D-IL)
Wyden (D-OR)

[gaspee]

1. I miss

I miss Claiborne Pell. Now there was a Senator. His daughter (an out lesbian before it was common to be out) died last month of breast cancer. They are both missed in this state.

BTW, Pell would be so disgusted by the way this country is being run. I couldn't have gotten an education without Pell grants. Too bad they've been gutted to the point where they are almost non-existant.

[demdiva]

2. Yay for JK and my former senators

Carol Moseley-Braun and Paul Simon

[karynnj]

3. Looking at the list, this was an incrediblely gutsy vote

for Robb of Virginia and Kerrey of Nebraska. (Had Kerrey already decided not to run for the Senate again?)

[blm]

4. Not as I recall - But the only one facing election that SAME year was JK.

.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Chuck Robb only Senator from Southern state to oppose DOMA. Was defeated

in 2000 by George Allen.

"...Robb was the only senator from a Southern state to oppose the Defense of Marriage Act. In stating his oppostion to the bill, which his friends and supporters urged him to support, he said the following: "I feel very strongly that this legislation is wrong. Despite its name, the Defense of Marriage Act does not defend marriage against some imminent, crippling effect. Although we have made huge strides in the struggle against discrimination based on gender, race, and religion, it is more difficult to see beyond our differences regarding sexual orientation. The fact that our hearts don't speak in the same way is not cause or justification to discriminate." Some have speculated that his position on gay rights, along with his positions on other hot-button issues like abortion, only alienated the generally conservative voters of Virginia, contributing to his eventual defeat."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robb

[blm]

6. Alot of that was Clinton backlash in Virginia - DOMA sure didn't help him

there for that year of demagoguery - too bad for Robb.

[beachmom]

7. Yeah, and too bad for ME who lives in Virginia

Basically, I only have one senator -- Sen. John Warner. The other senator has staffers who act like you're wasting their time when you call them. No, I don't agree with Sen. Warner all that often, but at least when I call I am treated with the respect a CONSTITUENT deserves.

[flpoljunkie]

8. Pleased to see Warner does not support FMA. He says it may outlaw civil

unions in the second sentence, and he cannot support the FMA in its current form.

[flpoljunkie]

25. Evidently Warner changed his mind, as he voted for cloture. Perhaps one

of those who votes for cloture, but against the bill? Who knows?

[kwolf68]

9. You are correct.

I no longer even contact Allen's office.

Warner, for as bad as he can be, has supported several issues of importance to me (not that I had anything to do with it). Warner has been a stalwart supporter of the roadless protection rule (among others) and he's never been known as an environmentalist.

He is more old school Repuke...tax cutter, war monger, but doesn't want to piss everything away this next quarter. I wish he was as bad as it got, but sadly, he's one of their best...showing just how bloody awful that party is.

[karynnj]

12. True, and although it was MA, it was his toughest race

He also likely had Presidential aspirations then.

editted as it asked a question answered upstream

[blm]

15. Because he was facing the most popular Republican in Mass history.

.

[Mass]

13. Definitively. Consider that Nelson is one of the very few (the only?) Dem

who will support that.

[flpoljunkie]

14. Nelson of Nebraska is said to be the only Dem who will vote for FMA.

[flpoljunkie]

26. Well, add Robert Byrd to the lost of those voting for the FMA. Too bad!

[derby378]

10. Russ Feingold ROCKS!

:yourock:

[election_2004]

11. That's my U.S. Senator!!!

I'll miss Feingold when I leave the state...but will look forward to having Boxer and Feinstein on my side.

[wiley]

16. Daschle, Dodd, Lieberman, Leahy, etc.? Gutless?

Yet oh how some love to trash Feinstein. It was Clinton's most shameful moment of his political career. Is that even a majority of Democratic Senators?


:banghead:

[Hippo_Tron]

20. Sadly, Wellstone too

Although, he admits in his book that he felt horrible about casting that vote after Matthew Shepard was killed.

[Love Bug]

24. I like to think Wellstone would have changed his mind by now

about DOMA.

[LittleClarkie]

17. Reminder: Clinton told Kerry to come out in favor of DOMA in 2004

and Kerry said that was something he could never do.

Maybe Clinton was right from a purely polticial point of view. But Kerry wouldn't do it.

[Hippo_Tron]

22. No, Kerry was correct regarding politics too

When you make a decision you stand by it, unless you genuinely have changed your views on the subject. If Kerry had come out for DOMA, there would've been ads saying "Kerry flip-flopped on DOMA" and he would've lost support on both sides because of it.

[TayTay]

18. Hawaii, Illinois, California and Massachusetts rocked!

All the Senators from those states voted against that odious bill.

I still have trouble believing that the late and very great Sen. Wellstone voted for it. Any here from Minnesota remember his reasoning? (I am not condemning a great man like Paul Wellstone. Just asking for his reasons because he was so consistently a champion of democracy. I am just curious why he voted Yeah on this.)

[Hippo_Tron]

21. Wellstone talks about this in his book

He said that he wasn't really sure how he justified it. He said that part of it was that he had never considered marriage to be anything other than between a man and a woman and didn't realize that it was so important to so many people. Part of it was his re-election that year and he had already defied popular will by voting against the welfare reform bill.

Wellstone took a lot of heat from the GLBT community and soon wondered whether he had cast the right vote. In particular after Matthew Shepard was killed, he says that he wondered if his vote for DOMA had contributed to the climate of hatred that allowed something so horrible to happen.

I look at this and just try to remember that even the best are still human. I also admire how much he really struggled over whether he had made the right decision or not and his admission that part of it might have had to do with his re-election. Had he been given a second chance, I have a feeling his vote would've been in the nay column.

[LeahD]

19. Again and again, thank you, JK. n/t

[TheDonkey]

23. Very brave and forward thinking democrats on that list.

Surprised that it's so small.

[Zhade]

27. Hear, hear!

"Defense of Marriage" - what a disgusting LIE.