Senate Democrats, especially in the Senate Judiciary, are bone weary of hearing popular criticism of their “pedophile-protecting hate bill.”
- In a major strategic shift, Senate Democratic leaders will push the federal hate crimes bill to the floor of the Senate as another amendment to a “must-pass” bill. Widespread Christian/conservative protest has destroyed the bill’s chances of going forward as standalone legislation as happened on April 29 with passage in the House.
- Democrats say there will be no hearings and no amendments allowed. There will undoubtedly be a minimum of debate on the floor of the Senate, probably no more than an hour. Clearly, they are in dread of allowing the hate bill to be opened to public scrutiny and Republican attack as the “Pedophile Protection Act.” They will not allow Senate Judiciary Democrats to be asked the same formidable question Republicans put to Democrats six weeks ago in the House Judiciary:
- “Will you allow an amendment expressly forbidding pedophiles special protection under the hate bill?”
- The only answer Democrats then or now can reply is, “No.” As pro-hate bill Democrat Rep. Alcee Hastings boldly asserted, all members of 547 paraphilias (sexual deviancies) listed by the American Psychological Association, including pedophiles, will be given special treatment under the hate bill, “so that they will no longer have to live in fear because of who they are.”
- Democrats have chosen to despise the intense concern and hate bill protest from heartland America. Many concerned citizens assert that S. 909 is very dangerous legislation, poorly understood by Congress; it must be discussed in the open public forum of Senate Judiciary hearings!
- Instead, since the Matthew Shepard Prevention Act is so shaky, so unable to withstand scrutiny by the normal legislative process, Democrats now resort to their habitual, under-the-table method of passage: attaching it as “pork” to the underbelly of some (probably unrelated) bill.