Breaking: Iowa House Speaker rejects constitutional amendment on gay

[cali]

marriage
by desmoinesdem
Share this on Twitter - Breaking: Iowa House Speaker rejects constitutional amendment on gay marriage Thu Apr 09, 2009 at 08:27:39 AM PDT
A few minutes ago Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy ruled out of order an attempt by Republicans to bring a resolution to the floor on amending Iowa's constitution to ban gay marriage. The resolution did not pass any House committee before last month's "funnel" deadline, so could only have reached the floor if leadership made an exception for it.

desmoinesdem's diary :: ::
I will update this post as more news becomes available. You can read a couple of different play-by-play accounts on the Twitter feeds of journalist Charlotte Eby and Republican Representative Renee Schulte. It sounds as if leadership conferred for a while before Murphy ruled the resolution out of order. Iowa Senate Majority leader Mike Gronstal, who refused to let a similar bill come to the Senate floor on Monday, was in the House chamber this morning speaking with House leaders.

Earlier today marriage equality opponents and supporters rallied at the Iowa capitol. I wasn't there, but Charlotte Eby provided the highlights. Former State Representative Danny Carroll told the crowd that politicians who don't listen to the word of God should be replaced. Someone doesn't seem to understand the constitution too well. Unfortunately for Carroll and fortunately for us, the voters of Iowa House district 75 sent him packing in 2006, and voted him down by a larger margin in his rematch against Eric Palmer last year.

One Iowa is the leading advocacy group for marriage equality in this state. If you believe in their cause, please kick in a few bucks to support their organizing and education work.

Background: The bill in question, House Joint Resolution 6, proposes an amendment to the Iowa constitution stipulating that marriage is between one man and one woman (here is the text). The co-sponsors of HJR 6 are Republican Dwayne Alons (not one of the brightest lights in Iowa politics) and Democrat Dolores Mertz (the kind of Democrat who votes against good labor bills and buries bills that would reduce pollution from factory farms).

The Iowa legislature's "funnel" date passed in early March. Under the normal rules of operation, bills that did not clear at least one House or Senate committee by that time were dead for the 2009 session.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/9/718175/-Breaking:-Iowa-House-Speaker-rejects-constitutional-amendment-on-gay-marriage

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[wryter2000]

2. K&R for Iowa n/t

n/t

[gratuitous]

3. Why don't the Republicans follow the rules?

Everyone knows the rules and agreed to them beforehand. Everyone presumably knows the eventualities that might work in their favor or against them. There are also unforeseen circumstances that can come up to thwart anyone's plans. But everyone agrees to the rules to conduct our business.

Then, when things go against them, as they inevitably will to anyone, they want to change the rules. We saw it in the 2000 fiasco, when the Bush campaign didn’t file any timely challenges to the election results in Florida, and then demanded a place at the table during the legal battle. Again in Florida during the Schiavo affair when they saw an opportunity to make political hay out of a family’s tragedy. Everyone had already agreed beforehand the order of priority we grant to decisions for someone no longer able to make decisions for herself, but the Republicans eagerly jumped into the meddling.

And now in Iowa, a unanimous court ruling comes out at the end of the legal process that everyone agreed to going in, and they want to short-circuit the rules of the legislature so they can have their way. Sorry fellas; we already agreed to the rules of this game, and it’s too late for you to change them now. Of course, their big fear is that bringing this up again at the next legislative session will be far too late; Iowa will still be a state, still be functioning perfectly well (or at least as well as it’s functioning now), and all their fear mongering and scare tactics about the horrors of gay marriage will be shown to be overblown hype and outright lies.