Hopefully this will send a message to the Christian right that their support for the gay marriage ban is less than expected:

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing an embarrassing defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hoped to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.

Supporters knew they wouldn’t achieve the two-thirds vote needed to approve a constitutional amendment, but they had predicted a gain in votes over the last time the issue came up, in 2004. Instead, they lost one vote for the amendment in a procedural test tally.

Wednesday’s 49-48 vote fell 11 short of the 60 required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally. The 2004 vote was 50-48

This could end up going either way. The Republicans could use it to motivate the base by saying they need to get more control in Senate or the base could end up not paying attention to it and letting the issue die until 2008.

The Democrats, on the other hand, need to really push and motivate their base even more. They need to make the 40 and under crowd well aware that this would not have even been brought up for debate if the Democrats held control on the Senate. This could be a great booster for a 2006 platform – “We feel it is more important to debate issues such as health care, FEMA, oil prices, Iraq and a host of other issues facing this nation than it is to argue about gay marriage”.