Allard and Musgrave chicken out. Religious right congressmen refuse to introduce anti-gay constitutional amendment

The religious right, and the conservative Republican, agenda has now become so toxic that two of the biggest defenders of the religious right in congress, Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), have just announced that they will NOT be introducing the anti-gay "ban gay marriage" constitutional amendment this Congress.

In past sessions, Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave were conservative champions of a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the last Congress, both sponsoring legislation to do just that.

Not this year.

The two Republicans said last week they have no plans to re-introduce their legislation in the new Congress – another sign that Democrats are now in the majority.

"At this time, I haven't discussed it with anyone," Allard said on Thursday. "If we thought there was a decent chance to bring it to the floor for debate, I would, but with the new Congress, I'm not sure we will ever have that opportunity."

Aaron Johnson, Musgrave's spokesman, said the congresswoman would not introduce the legislation this year.

It won't go anywhere? That's never been an argument against introducing legislation. Congressmen always introduce legislation that they don't think will go anywhere. Allard and Musgrave knew the legislation wouldn't pass when they introduced the amendment in the last two sessions of Congress.

Allard and Musgrave aren't introducing the legislation because the Republicans are scared to death that the religious right, and conservative Republican, agenda will be the death of them. Their colleagues must have told them to stay away from the hate issues that have proven to be toxic to the GOP.

This is rather big. And now the cat's out of the bag. If Allard and Musgrave introduce the legislation, which I think they now will - because the religious right is going to flip - we already know that they're doing it under duress, and we already know that by so doing they're hurting Musgrave's re-election, and the re-election of every Republican member of Congress. Musgrave's opponent in 2006, Angie Paccione (who supports gay marriage), mocked Marilyn's obsession with gay marriage throughout the campaign, AND she came within 3 percentage points of defeating Marilyn in a reliably conservative district.

The impact of the November elections continues.

- John in DC, AmericaBlog