A contagious lack of backbone

New Jersey Dems are wimping out over a vote for gay marriage. But they are acting like scared herd animals. The vote in NJ was supposed to be routine. Legislators said wait until after the election and we'll vote for marriage no matter the outcome. It's a promise. It seems the failure of the marriage vote in Maine scared them off. But perhaps if NJ had approved gay marriage first the vote in Maine may have gone the other way.

Some prominent Dems in NJ are trying to rally the troops. In November a GOP governor was elected and he has vowed to veto any marriage bill. If it is to become law it must be in this lame-duck session. There is still hope.

For the last several days the New York Senate has been on the verge of voting on gay marriage during their "emergency session." The Assembly even passed it a second time (bills must pass both houses during the emergency session) to avoid delays. Finally, they cleared other business and debated. A lot of senators said some encouraging things in the debate.

They voted. And came eight votes short. From what I can piece together, there were supposed to be 3 GOP votes in favor, giving enough votes to overcome two reluctant Dems. But one senator, who had been seen as a gay advocate, voted no early in the process, a serious defection. That gave the 3 GOP senators and several more Dems the cover they needed to vote no as well.

Ton Duane, the Dem senator pushing hardest for the marriage bill, was shaken by the rebuff and betrayal. He commented, "Unfortunately, I think there was a contagious lack of backbone that occurred here today." Ya think? Duane had previously predicted that the vote would be based on politics, not on righting a wrong. But some good came out of it. Such a debate and vote would have been impossible 5 years ago. This time many senators said some very nice things from the floor of the Senate.

There will be gay backlash. It started with a Times Square rally. A second rally was held in Union Square and featured many of the senators who had voted yes. Then there were prominent postings of the eight Dems who voted no, complete with email addresses. Along with that was analysis that several of these guys were unopposed in their primary and readily voted in at the general election. They will definitely have challengers during the next election cycle.

In the meantime the District of Columbia City Council voted for gay marriage by a margin of 11-2. This is the 1st of 2 votes. The next vote is in a couple weeks and the mayor has said he'll sign.

National Organization of Marriage responded by saying the citizens of DC have a God-given right to vote on marriage. Oh? Chapter and verse, please. Or Article of the Constitution. Voters did exercise that right -- by voting for a city council that favors gay marriage.