Memorial Day push for FMA flops
Senators targeted by religious right hold firm against marriage ban
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.


WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) last week urged his fellow Republican senators to promote a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage as they traveled through their home states during the Memorial Day weekend.Santorum reportedly tried to portray same-sex marriage in Massachusetts as a “national crisis that requires a national response — a constitutional amendment.”

Santorum chairs the Senate Republican Conference, which sets the agenda for Senate Republicans. But newspaper and television news stories over the holiday weekend — and reports from a coalition of civil rights groups — indicates that little or no mention of a constitutional amendment (FMA) surfaced among GOP senators during the three-day holiday weekend.

What surfaced instead were emotional speeches by politicians and leaders of veterans groups paying tribute to U.S. military service members who died in action during World War II and in current U.S. military action in Iraq.


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Pawlenty willing to take gay marriage ban off table
Associated Press


MINNEAPOLIS - Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he would take the divisive issue of a constitutional gay marriage ban off the table in order to reach a special session agreement.

The proposal by Pawlenty - who supports a gay marriage ban - would enable DFLers to adjourn without a vote on the issue if they choose.

The Legislature adjourned its regular session May 16 without reaching agreement on any of its major spending and borrowing bills.

Thursday, Pawlenty said he would propose to Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, that leaders of both parties agree in advance on the issues, such as sex offender bills and a state borrowing bill, they would hear, and in what order. If the Senate did not want to take up any other issues afterward - such as gay marriage - it could adjourn, Pawlenty said.