As Rob noted in his prior post, HRC is breathlessly extolling the virtues of the Democratic National Committee's latest candidates for president.
Now far be it for me to interrupt HRC's paroxysms of joy over its new status as a quasi-official wing of the Democratic Party, but I am focused on the issues.
One of the biggest issues this election season is the Uniting American Families Act, or UAFA, which would equalize immigration treatment for same-sex couples to the same standard that opposite sex couples already enjoy.
HRC excitedly informs us that every single Democratic candidate "supports that bill."
A number of the candidates are Senators or Congressmen.
So, how about a Roll Call of Senators or Congressmen who are cosponsors (or primary sponsors) of UAFA?
You'd expect Hillary Rodham Clinton to be a cosponsor of the bill, right?
Wrong. Hillary Clinton hasn't cosponsored it in the Senate.
What about Senator Barack Obama? Surely he'd be in our corner!
Ooops, he's not a co-sponsor either.
Joe Biden? Now here's a Senator with a long tenure. Oops, except that he's not a co-sponsor either.
How about Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd? He hails from a state with a civil unions bill, passed democratically and signed by a GOP governor.
Nope, he's not a co-sponsor either.
In fact, the UAFA in the Senate has a pathetic three cosponsors -- in addition to primary sponsor Daniel Patrick Leahy, Senators Brown, Feingold and Inouye have stepped up to the plate.
The moral of the story?
Count on Democrats to tell HRC they "support" various equality reforms. Just don't count on them to actually vote for them.
Nor on HRC to do it's job and ask the putative "supporters" why their name isn't on the cosponsors' line.
To his credit, Dennis Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to be a cosponsor of the bill (in the House of Representatives), but being that he's the only Democrat in the race who actually votes for his declared positions -- and the only Democrat to support marriage equality -- he doesn't stand a snowball's chance of being the Democrats' nominee.
Oh, and if you really want a good chuckle, neither Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, nor Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada could bother putting their signature on the line either.
Long story short? With "supporters" of UAFA like these Democrats, the bill will never come to fruition.
