Matt Bors gets it exactly right:
Wonkblog has a good chart showing how fast support for gay marriage has grown in the Senate:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad this is happening. But I can see the humor in it, as well. (By the way, the above graph is a couple of days old, and thus already out of date. The current number of Senators supporting SSM is 53.)
Dan Amara and Jon Chait point out that there are only four remaining holdouts among Democratic senators, and try to game out who will be the very last one.
Dan: Well, Jon, it’s been a crazy month, but today, after Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp dropped out of the tournament, we’re down to the Final Four: Mark Pryor, Joe Manchin, Tim Johnson, and Mary Landrieu. The moderate powerhouses are the only remaining Democratic senators who haven’t come out in support of gay marriage — but only one can be the last Democratic senator not to support gay marriage. Let’s take a look at the field. Landrieu is an interesting case, don’t you think? You could argue she should have been knocked out last week.
Jon: I’m going to get a lot of heat from Landrieu’s fan base, but I’ll just say it: She does not belong in this tournament. She said last Thursday, “The people of Louisiana have made clear that marriage in our state is restricted to one man and one woman. While my personal views have evolved, I will support the outcome of Louisiana’s recent vote.” She has already dropped the e-word. We’re seeding her a distant No. 4.
The National Journal considers the five Republican Senators most likely to be the next to come over to the pro-SSM side. And Nate Silver discusses why we’ve seen such a rush, and predicts the rush will soon end.
On the bright side, the Senate has come a long way. They were enemy #1 when it came to Civil Rights for Af-Ams.. Little know factoid: The House passed what was essentially the 1964cra way back in 1956.
You could add a whole host of other civil rights bills, like anti-lynching, that flew thru the House only to be killed in the Senate.
The Senate should be judged by the soft bigotry of low expectations.
It’s a Hockey Stick!