The vote of the US Senate yesterday to agree to overcome a potential filibuster, and allow a final vote on ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) is a great move forward on civil rights.
The proposed law, discussed for many years, would ban employers from firing, refusing to hire, or discriminating against workers or job applicants based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The procedural vote was 61-30 with 54 Democrats (all but Claire McCaskill, who was not present), and 7 Republicans (Susan Collins, Kelly Ayotte, Dean Heller, Mark Kirk,. Rob Portman, Orrin Hatch, and Pat Toomey) in favor.
So the bill will pass the Senate in the next few days, but disturbing is that 30 Republicans had the nerve to vote for continued discrimination, and 8 Republicans were not recorded as voting.
It will be interesting to see if any of these 38 Republicans will vote for the final bill, particularly such Senators as John McCain and Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and John Thune, who at times have shown some moderation as compared to most in the Senate Republican caucus.
At the same time, Illinois moved today toward final acceptance of gay marriage, making that state the 15th to have gay marriage, going into effect by the summer of 2014.
At the same time, other states seem to be moving in the same direction, including Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, although at different measurements of progress.
Regarding the ENDA legislation, IF Speaker John Boehner allowed an open vote, the legislation would become law, with most Democrats and enough Republicans to make it the law of the land , but Boehner has indicated that he will not allow a vote, which, if it is pursued all the way, would stop any chance to do what is morally right to do, stop job discrimination, So pressure must be brought to convince him to change his mind, and allow a vote even without a majority of his caucus.
Orrin Hatch gets on board but Marco Rubio does not.
Florida, not Utah, is the bellwether state which routinely carries for presidential winners (all since 1928 except for 1960 and 1992 as narrow Republican holds in Democratic pickup years).
Wouldn’t it be great if, shall it be a threepeat for the Democrats, Marco Rubio becomes unseated with Election 2016 by his Team Blue opponent?! (I’d love that challenger to be “Former and Future” congressman Alan Grayson.)
Marco Rubio, propped ever-so-briefly as savior for the Republican Party! …
What a political twit!
Marco Rubio has proved to be a truly disastrous Senator, and his star is falling fast, as far as the Presidency is concerned.
Better than Grayson, who is going to have trouble holding his seat, would be if Debbie Wasserman Schultz were to run for the Senate, and were she to lose, to offer her a cabinet post under the next Democratic President as HHS or Education Secretary, as these are the kind of issues she is most dedicated to during her Congressional career.
Ronald writes, “Better than Grayson, who is going to have trouble holding his seat…”
Alan Grayson now reps a Democratic-voting district. When he was unseated in 2010, the margin in Fla. #08 was R+18. In 2012, Grayson won in Fla. #09 by D+25. (A 43-point shift between the two cycles.) His raw-vote margin with Fla. #09, in 2012, was 76,035 and he received 62.50 percent of that district’s vote. So, Grayson shouldn’t be in trouble with the 2014 midterms.
Oh wow, D, I was not aware of that! Thanks for updating me, and I agree that Grayson is a real fighter and cares about his constituents, so maybe he could run for the Senate in 2016!