Bait and Switch - So here's how it goes. We homos can have our hate crimes legislation, and our Congressional legislators get to amend the Constitution to make us second class citizens without feeling too guilty about all that. In case you doubt that a major screw-over is in the works, consider the words of Sen. Gordon Smith, the Oregon Republican who co-sponsored the measure that passed yesterday. Quoth the Post:

Smith, who supports a ban on same-sex marriage, told reporters he thought it important for the Senate to act against hate before dealing with the marriage issue. "Before you get to marriage, get over hate," he said.

(A recent NYT piece on opposition to gay marriage in France noted similar behavior among politicians there, with "many of the politicians working most arduously to block gay marriage ... shoring up their progressive bona fides by sponsoring legislation to outlaw public expressions of homophobia.")

Glad to know all those years of lobbying for a hate crimes bill has paid off so handsomely for the HRC.