Senate Debating Gay Marriage Ban
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Ali, thank you. To our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM where new pictures and information are arriving all the time. Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you today's top stories happening now. An all-out political assault on gay marriage. The president and Republican leaders revive the issue and reach out to the conservative base. It's 4:00 here in Washington where supporters of the gay marriage ban say they are protecting children. Critics say they are pandering. The Senate is debating a gay marriage ban right now. But do voters across the country really care? This hour, we'll get a snapshot from Tennessee and we'll examine the election year politics behind the culture wars. And Donald Rumsfeld under fire again over Iraq. Will the Pentagon chief pay a price for alleged atrocities by U.S. troops? It is midnight in Iraq, scene of new bloodshed, bombings and kidnappings. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Right now, senators are debating one of the hottest of hot button issues, a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage in the United States. Chances of passage are considered slim to none, but many Republicans are keen on making a statement in this congressional election year, including President Bush. With his conservative base shakier than ever, Mr. Bush declared just a short while ago that he's proud to stand with supporters of a gay marriage ban. Our congressional correspondent Dana Bash is standing by, so is our chief national correspondent John King. Let's go to the White House first. Our White House correspondent Ed Henry with the latest. Ed.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Democrats are charging that the president is trying to divert attention from the bad news in Iraq by turning to a tried and true social issue that whips up conservatives.</s>HENRY (voice-over): President Bush gave restless conservatives the red meat they have been craving.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marriage is the most fundamental institution of civilization and it should not be redefined by activist judges. You are here because you strongly support a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman. And I am proud to stand with you.</s>HENRY: Conservatives are frustrated that people close to the president have been lashing out at the proposed ban on gay marriage.</s>MARY CHENEY, AUTHOR, "NOW IT'S MY TURN": Basically writing discrimination into the constitution of the United States is fundamentally wrong.</s>HENRY: While the president has been keeping his powder dry on an issue that helped deliver his reelection.</s>TONY PERKINS, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: There has been some concern that this was an issue that was important enough to campaign on in the 2004 election cycle by Republicans in general, but it's not been important enough to act upon yet.</s>HENRY: Liberals see a president down in the polls suddenly turning to a wedge issue that can drive conservatives to the polls in the midterms.</s>REV. ROBERT HARDIES, ALL SOULS CHURCH: Let's be honest with ourselves, there isn't anyone here who is naive enough to believe that the introduction of this legislation now in two consecutive election cycles is anything but a politically motivated effort to win votes by demonizing a class of citizens.</s>HENRY: The president responded by insisting he believes every American should be treated with tolerance and respect and he also responded sharply to critics who say this should be decided by the states. The president said states are trying to do it, but they are being overridden by activist judges. He used the phrase activist judges at least four times just to emphasize that point. That really hits home with conservatives, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Bottom line Ed, how committed is the White House to this issue?</s>HENRY: Well, you know, when the first lady Laura Bush recently said it should not be used as a campaign issue sent kind of a mixed signal to conservatives. Today White House spokesman Tony Snow added to that a little bit by saying, almost painting a picture of a passive president only speaking out today because of the Senate debate, not really doing it on his own, saying it's unlikely the president will be making calls to lobby senators. That only feeds into the Democratic charge that the president is trying to do just enough to whip up conservatives, but not more that might turn off sort of middle of the road voters. But I can tell you, the president may have</s>BLITZER: Ed, thank you very much. Let's go up to the hill. The Senate debate now underway. Our congressional correspondent Dana Bash is watching all of this unfold from there. Dana.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well the debate started at just a couple of hours ago and we expect senators to vote midweek, probably Wednesday morning but there is no chance, no chance that this will reach the two-thirds majority needed to actually change the constitution. So the obvious question is why in fact are they debating this issue right now? Well, you heard Ed talk on many of the political issues. Senate sponsors especially one in particular, Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado has been hitting an issue hard that we also heard from the president today. That what they think is that states, many of the states where massive numbers of voters, big majorities, 70 in one case, 75 percent in another did vote to ban gay marriage. But as you heard Ed talk about, activist judges overturned the will of the voters. Let's listen to the Senator Allard.</s>SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R) COLORADO: Make no mistake about it, traditional marriage is under assault. I say assault because the move to redefine marriage is taken place not through the Democratic process, such as state legislatures and the Congress or ballot initiatives around the nation. This assault has taken a place in our courts and often in direct conflict with the will of the people.</s>BASH: Now proponents do expect to get for the first time a majority or over a majority of votes for this issue. They expect about 52 votes in favor of this constitutional amendment. And they say that at least shows that they have momentum on this issue. But certainly you talk about a long-term policy goal. There's no question that there is also very much a short-term political goal here, Wolf and that is the fact that conservatives say across the board, that they are very upset about the way their Republican leaders here in Washington, especially those up for reelection in 2006 are governing and they simply think that they have not paid attention to their issues enough. So that's their perspective. On the other side Democrats Wolf say that there is something else at play, that that is, Republican leaders simply don't want to talk about the issues that many voters care about because that equals bad news, things like Iraq and gas prices.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D) MINORITY LEADER: For me it's clear the reason for this debate is to divide our society, to pit one against another. This is another one of president's -- the president's efforts to frighten, to distort, distract and confuse America. It is this administration's way of avoiding the tough, the real problems that American citizens are confronted with each and every day.</s>BASH: The truth is, this issue was actually put on the Senate calendar, Wolf, at the very beginning of this session, back at the beginning of 2005. But we're not seeing it come up for a vote until now, five months before an election. You talk to conservatives. Many of them may say, wait a minute, we got out and voted for you in the last election for this. So some of them certainly feel taken for granted when it comes to appealing to them on these issues. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: You would need 67 votes in the Senate to get it passed, the two thirds majority. You say they might get up to 52 votes. Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, is he the only Democrat who is going to vote against, he's going to vote with, in favor of the constitutional ban?</s>BASH: He very well could be, haven't seen an exact vote count, but it's possible he could be the only Democrat and on the other side, there will be some Republicans Wolf who vote against this because they don't think that this is the business of the -- this shouldn't be a constitutional issue. This should be left up to the states no matter what happens in the states. So but they do believe, supporters of this do believe they will get 52 votes. That's up from the last time in 2004 they only got 48 votes and the difference is because Republicans have more senators and they think that has ticked up the vote margin for them. We'll see on Wednesday.</s>BLITZER: Thank you, Dana. Dana Bash on the Hill. Some gay Republicans are firing right back at the president for promoting a gay marriage ban. They are accusing him of trying to score political points by dividing Americans. In an open letter to Mr. Bush,</s>MARY CHENEY, DICK CHENEY'S DAUGHTER: The notion of amending the constitution and writing basically writing discrimination into the constitution of the United States is fundamentally wrong.</s>BLITZER: You write this on page 180 in your book. If the Republican Party fails to come around on this issue, same sex marriage I believe it will find itself on the wrong side of history and on a sharp decline into irrelevance. Those are strong words.</s>CHENEY: They are strong words and I did write them and I believe them. I think if you look at polls and I do talk about them in the book, this is not a conservative issue, not a liberal issue, not a Republican issue or Democrat issue. This is a generational issue. And as voter -- as younger voters, as younger people come of age, what you're going to see is you're going to see resistance to same sex marriage dissipating.</s>BLITZER: We're going to have more of that interview with Mary Cheney and her views on same sex marriage. That's coming up in our next hour right here in THE SITUATION ROOM. The gay marriage debate is front and center here in Washington, but it is also playing out at the state level five months before Election Day. Our chief national correspondent John King is here in THE SITUATION ROOM. You've been traveling around the country seeing what is going on.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Wolf, that's because as Dana and Ed just noted, everybody knows the debate in the Senate will not lead to the votes necessary to actually send an amendment out to the states to be ratified. So this action, the real action is taking place at the state level including the home state of the Senate majority leader Bill Frist.</s>KING (voice-over): Joan and Nancy live just outside Nashville, one of the real front lines in the gay marriage debate. Tennessee is one of seven states with proposed amendments this year along with Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin. Nineteen states already ban gay marriage. A movement Christian conservatives like Tennessee State Senator David Fowler says will continue to expand if there are not enough votes in Congress to advance a nationwide ban. Fowler disputes critics who say Republicans use gay marriage initiatives to drive up conservative turn-out in the 2004 presidential cycle and are hoping for a repeat this November.</s>DAVID FOWLER (R) TENNESSEE STATE SENATE: Many of us, people like me, we deep down do believe that marriage is not one of those things we can define any way we want to and it has nothing to do with politics. If it makes for good politics, fine. But to me it's not about politics.</s>KING: White evangelicals are the major force behind the anti-gay marriage movement here in Tennessee and across the country. Many African-American pastors like Henry Coles of Nashville at Word of Faith Christian Center also oppose gay marriage and are striking odd alliances this election year.</s>REV. HENRY COLES, WORD OF FAITH CHRISTIAN CENTER: It's a fundamental doctrinal precept of my faith in Christ Jesus and for me as a representative of Christ, unions begin with a man and a woman.</s>KING: This testimonial in favor of same sex marriage was delivered at a gay pride festival. Joan and Nancy met in bible study and bristle when God is brought into the political debate.</s>JOAN VANREESE, GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATE: I know that my God loves me. And I don't understand why that has to be -- I'm sorry I just don't understand that whole purpose.</s>NANCY VANREESE, GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATE: There's so many things and he is speaking of his faith. Should we actually vote to include discrimination into our constitution ever? And that's a legal question, not a faith-based question.</s>KING: Now one of the subplots in this debate is, does putting these state ballot initiatives on the ballot, does it actually drive up vote among conservative Republicans? As you know Wolf, that's a great debate in this town. Many Democrats think this president would not have been reelected were it not for the initiative on the Ohio ballot last year. Mr. Bush won Ohio. Many Democrats think maybe they would have won that state if that were not on there. The president's pollster in that campaign says simply not true. He says there's no evidence that this boosts turnout, but we're going to see seven of these on the ballot this November, many of them in states like Tennessee with a key Senate race. It will be interesting to watch say, Harold Ford, an African-American member of Congress, going into African-American churches where some of the ministers are working with Republicans on this issue. It makes for pretty remarkable politics.</s>BLITZER: How is he, Harold Ford Jr., how is he finessing this? He wants to be the senator from Tennessee. He's right now a congressman. How does he handle this? How's he answering questions when it comes up?</s>KING: Right now in the Senate he's against the constitutional amendment. We could not get an answer from his office as to how he will vote on the state constitutional ban. But the question is going to be, when he's walking into these churches. Some of these ministers of course -- it's very interesting. Some of the African-American ministers are fighting amongst themselves because some say don't get involved in this issue because they think their congregants don't like it. Others say don't stand up with Republicans, especially evangelical Republicans. So it's an issue for the senator. It's also an issue for some of these ministers. The minister we spoke to said many of his colleagues if you will pressure him to not get involved. He says he reads the Bible and he must.</s>BLITZER: Thanks very much, John King reporting for us. Thank you. John King. Ed Henry, Dana Bash, they are all part of the best political team on television, CNN, America's campaign headquarters. The most recent polling by the way shows Americans are divided over gay marriage. Fifty percent of those surveyed by Gallup last month say they favor a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman; 47 percent say they oppose it. We'll have much more on gay marriage politics, public opinion, that's coming up from our bill Schneider and James Carville and JC Watts, they'll have some thoughts on this as well. That's coming up in our strategy session. Time now for Jack Cafferty. He's joining us from New York with the Cafferty File. Jack.</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: A Michigan judge is going ahead with a lawsuit against the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic spying program. The Bush administration wanted the lawsuit dismissed, along with a similar one here in New York. The administration claims something called U.S. military and state secrets privilege when it comes to these cases. They say the government would not be able to defend the program without disclosing classified information. In other words they don't want any court deciding if the spying program is legal. That could be embarrassing if it came down against them. Some members of Congress have questioned the way this privilege has been used by the Bush White House. Republican Congressman Christopher Shays told "The New York Times" it's the very people you're suing are the ones who get to use the state secrets privilege. It's a stacked deck. So here's the question. Should lawsuits challenging the legality of NSA's warrantless spying program be allowed to proceed? E-mail your thoughts to CaffertyFile@CNN.com. or go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Thank you, Jack for that and to our viewers if you want a sneak preview of Jack's questions, plus an early read on the day's political news, what's ahead in THE SITUATION ROOM, here's what you do. You sign up for the daily e-mail alert. Simply go to CNN.com/SITUATIONROOM. Coming up, a new threat from Iran to use oil as a weapon in the showdown over that country's nuclear ambitions. So what does it mean for the white House? What does it mean for the U.S.? We'll find out. Is affirmative action in schools constitutional? The U.S. Supreme Court says it will hear a crucial case on the issue. Details ahead and later much more in our top story, the battle over gay marriage. Once again James Carville and JC Watts, they'll face off in today's strategy session. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.