Backward progress amendment defeated - for now

Billmon notes that six Repuglicans actually broke from the party line and voted against voting on it, and three Demwits voted for it.

In the end, Republican Senators Campbell, Chafee, Collins, McCain, Snowe and (surprisingly) Sununu voted with the Democrats to deny cloture, while Miller, Nelson and Byrd were the only donkeys (or asses, in this case) to vote for it.

And what's more, the boobs blew it by pressing the vote with Kerry and Edwards missing, allowing them to successfully avoid laying a vote on the table.

It's not necessarily over, however, because the Repuglicans were merely trying to end debate and force a vote. They can still keep up the screech, and I'm sure the particularly rabid amongst them will do so.

The real threat, though, is being cooked up over in our Chamber of People's Deputies, where the gauleiters are hard at work on a bill that would deny the federal courts jurisdiction over challenges to the Heterosexual Supremecy Act (otherwise known as the Defense of Marriage Act.)

How's that gonna work? A Federal Amendment that Federal judges can't rule on?

Taken to its extreme (which is where DeLay and his crew can usually be found) the jurisdictional dodge could be a backdoor way to get at a whole slew of constitutional protections the far right doesn't like very much - not by repealing them (which would also run afoul of that pesky supermajority requirement for constitutional amendments) but by systematically removing any remedy in the federal or state courts.

Constitutional? Probably not. But, given that the Rehnquist Court itself has already shown a lusty willingness to slam courthouse doors in the faces of those advancing federal constitutional claims, the question becomes: Who's going to stop them?

Good point.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.