John Kerry on Senate Vote to Defeat Election-Year Constitutional Amendment on Same Sex Marriage

The gay marriage amendment failed in the Senate yesterday. The amendment "backed by President Bush and conservative groups, was soundly defeated in the Senate yesterday after proponents failed to persuade a bare majority of all senators to support the measure."

John Kerry issued the following statement on the defeat of the amendment:

“In the first week of June, 7 more American soldiers were killed in Iraq while the Senate wasted time debating a crass, political, divisive amendment Bill Frist knew would never pass. How dare the Republicans waste Americans’ time while we have troops getting killed and maimed in Iraq with next to no debate about that broken policy.

“Why the urgent push from so-called conservatives to strip away states’ rights to regulate marriage? There’s no marriage crisis, there’s a political crisis in the Republican Party and this debate is nothing more than a pathetic diversion.

“Good luck to any Republican Senator who chooses to score cheap political points by dividing Americans, while serious problems are being ignored. We should have spent these past three days dealing with gas prices and our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, lowering health care costs, securing our ports, or working out a real plan to fix the mess in Iraq.

“If Washington doesn’t get its priorities straight, I’m confident Americans will find their own way of holding this Congress accountable on November 7th.”