September 27, 2007

Hate crime bill barely survives vote

Posted by: Chris

Correction: Nine Republicans, not eight, crossed party lines to put the hate crime bill up for a vote. The original post omitted Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman.

The Senate today voted 60-39 to cut off debate on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, which would add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to federal hate crime laws.  There wasn't a vote to spare, considering the measure needed 60 to end any threat of a filibuster. Immediately after the cloture vote, the Senate approved by voice vote, with no dissents, adding the amendment to the massive Defense Department authorization.

A few interesting angles:

• Sen. Larry Craig voted with his GOP colleagues against cloture, hoping to kill the measure.
• Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who some have said will be the next target for outing activists, was vocal in his opposition. "The president is not going to agree to this social legislation on the defense authorization bill," said Graham. "This bill will get vetoed."
• Complaints like Graham's about the attachment of "non-germane" amendments are bipartisan old hat in Congress, as is the strategy of amending needed legislation with controversial amendments. Both sides do it; both sides complain when the other side does.
• Backers of the law will need 7 more votes, assuming they don't lose any, to override President Bush's threatened veto.
• But before that happens, they've got to get the bill passed, no easy task since they've attached it to the DoD reauthorization, which is itself encumbered by debate over the Iraq war.
• Nine Eight Republicans crossed party lines to vote with the unanimous Dems to end debate on the hate crime bill.  They were: Susan Collins (ME), Judd Gregg (NH), Richard Lugar (IN), Gordon Smith (OR), Olympia Snowe (ME), Arlen Specter (PA), George Voinovich (OH), John Warner (VA) and Norm Coleman (MN).
• The minimal crossover only emphasizes the need to reach out to moderate Republicans. HRC under Joe Solmonese has become so closely tied to the Democrats that it is incapable of doing that work. And Log Cabin? Well Log Cabin has virtually disappeared from the scene since the departure of Patrick Guerrierro.
• Andrew Sullivan sounded a dissenting note, calling the measure "a completely symbolic and utterly irrelevant 'hate crimes bill.'" Ouch. He also buys into the revisionist view of the Matthew Shepard's murder as more the work of drug-addled thugs than homophobes: "the Shepard case was not devoid of homophobia, even if it was grotesquely distorted as a pure hate crime by the usual suspects."

I support hate crime bills, because I see them as a form of anti-terror legislation, since the target of both types of criminals isn't just the victim, but a broader group and societal peace as a whole.  I part ways with those who see it as "thought control," since all criminal legislation includes a "mens rea" or criminal intent element, and the thoughts here aren't punished unless they give way to action.

Tags: gay hate crimes, Larry Craig, Lindsey Graham, Matthew Shepard