Sen. Feingold Walks Out As Marriage Amendment Hearing Moved Behind Closed Doors

Sen Feingold walks out as Marriage Amendment Hearing moved behind closed doors

http://pageoneq.com/news/2006/Marria...osed_0518.html

by Michael Rogers
5/28/2006

The United States House Of Representatives Judiciary Committee moved its meeting today -- including the "mark-up" of a US Constitutional Amendment to retrict marriage equality -- from a public room in a Senate office building to the restricted access President's Room, off the floor of the Senate chamber, inside the US Capitol. According to a statement issued by the Human Rights Campaign, the room "is not open to the public and does not even have enough chairs for every Senator on the committee to sit."

Sources have confirmed to PageOneQ that a heated exchange took place at the meeting between Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), pictured, the committee's ranking Democractic member, and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the panel.

According to an observer of the meeting, Feingold expressed his dismay that the meeting had been moved and his desire not to assist the committee in reaching a quorum. "Don't lecture me," Specter said to Feingold, before the Wisconsin Senator walked out of the meeting. Feingold was recently recognized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in part for his staunch support of full marriage equality for all Americans.

Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign was swift in his reaction. Within minutes of the meeting's end ghe said in a statement, "Using the Constitutional amendment process as a political tool is bad enough, but doing it behind closed doors is appalling."

Senator Feingold's Office issued a statement in which the Senator said, "Today's markup of the constitutional amendment concerning marriage, in a small room off the Senate floor with only a handful of people other than Senators and their staffs present, was an affront to the Constitution. I objected to its consideration in such an inappropriate setting and refused to help make a quorum. I am deeply disappointed that the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee [Specter] went forward with the markup over my objection.