The Senate on Thursday passed a historic bill to prevent discrimination against gay and transgender employees — sending the bill to the House where GOP leaders have signaled that it’s dead on arrival.
Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in a 64-32 bipartisan vote. House Speaker John A. Boehner said earlier this week he will not bring it up for a vote.
“The bill is currently not scheduled in the House,” Rory Cooper, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said Thursday. “I hope Majority Leader Reid soon addresses the dozens of House-passed bills that have been ignored in the Senate that create jobs, improve education and create opportunity while Americans struggle to find a good-paying job.”
The Republicans from within: Lots of in-fighting
As if Republicans don’t have enough problems, they are devouring their own. Case in point–how many republican leaders have dissed newly elected Chris Christie? His victory wasn’t a day old before Rand Paul criticized him publically for appearing in the ads featuring the song “Stronger than a Storm” which were made to promote tourism along the storm-ravaged coast of New Jersey.
Marco Rubio, rather than congratulating the re-elected governor sniped from within and spoke of different elections with different people. A congratulations would have sufficed.
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Cutting it a little close…
Looking over election results today, several races caught my eye. First off, Atif Qarni came a little less than 500 points of unseating Delegate Bob Marshall. Bob Marshall has heretofore been invincible. Atif had a lot endorsements and the environmental, educational, and women’s groups poured a fair amount of money into this campaign. Atif had a well organized campaign. They covered their bases. Should Marshall be worried? No one has gotten this close over the past 2 decades.
Jeremy McPike got close to upsetting Delegate Scott Lingamfelter. He was just under 300 votes short to pass Lingamfelter. Lingamfelter garnered some criticism railing against the appointment of Tracey Thorne-Begland as a circuit court judge. Thorne-Begland is openly gay and was a well-respected Richmond prosecutor. Lingamfelter grandstanded against his appointment.
John Bell came even closer to unseating Delegate Dave Ramadan. Bell was less than 200 votes shy of unseating the state delegate. Was it Ramadan’s anti choice position or his delay in standing against the bi-county parkway? Who knows? Bell actually won in Loudoun County. However, Ramadan had enough votes in Prince William County to hold on to his narrow lead.
Three races with very close results. Does it mean anything? I think it does. All the candidates need to look carefully at demographics and the changing tide if they want to stay in office. Any advice for the 3 republicans who came close to getting wiped out?
