Same-sex marriage survives a majority of insanity in the House

Just over a month ago I wrote about "Senatorial sanity on same-sex marriage" after the proposed Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was voted down in the Senate.

But sanity is relative. 48 Senators voted for the amendment, well short of the required two-thirds majority, but still 48 of 100 Senators. That's an insanity percentage of -- hold on, let me do the calculation -- 48 percent.

Not good.

Well, things are worse in the House of Representatives. As the AP reports, the House today rejected the same-sex marriage ban just as the Senate had done. But the vote was 236-187 for the amendment! That's an insanity percentage of -- hold on, hold on, hold on -- almost 56 percent. In other words, there's a majority of insanity in the House.

That shouldn't surprise anyone. The House is less deliberative than the Senate, which was precisely how the Framers intended it. The House is the people's body, but, as such, it's also a body prone to demagoguery. And, as you know, the Republicans, of late prone to demagoguery, run the House. Call it the DeLay House.

All that may change this coming November, though I doubt it. I think the GOP will hold on to a majority -- a slim one, but a majority nonetheless. And they'll do it in part by using same-sex marriage as a wedge issue alongside all the other factors of fear upon which they regularly campaign.

I congratulate the House for not being quite insane enough to vote with a two-thirds majority for the Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but that's about all I'll give it.