According to Bloomberg, the FMA is dead, blocked, voted down, a no go.

Democrats will prevent a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage from coming to a vote in the U.S. Senate, Minority Leader Tom Daschle said.

Republican backers of the measure need 60 senators to agree to end debate Wednesday and move to a vote. The amendment would define marriage as between a man and a woman and prohibit courts from ordering states to allow civil unions, which confer some marriage rights. Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin.

“There is no question they will fall short,” Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, told reporters in Washington. Daschle, who opposes gay marriage, said that an amendment isn’t necessary and that the matter should be left to the states.

Left to the states would be a good idea if it weren’t for the fact that whatever the states decide can be overturned in a court. Think Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, yeah that. And as Jay reminded me, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, that too. Anything the states can legislate can be overturned.

Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said Republicans are trying to divert the public’s attention from the war in Iraq and the economy. “What we have here is crass, cold, hard politics distracting our nation from the serious issues facing it,” Boxer said.

Either she’s really stupid or really insulting. Marriage is a serious issue upon which the state of the country, freedom of religion, and civilization hangs in the balance. This is what’s causing all the rancor.

“Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any state shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than of a man and a woman.”

There is a one sentence version that allows same sex unions which is the same thing as marriage except for the word “marriage.” Still dead.