Thomas Daschle: “As I understand it, Senator Frist is not planning to come to the floor in the immediate time period, but I will just…”

“As I understand it, Senator Frist is not planning to come to the floor in the immediate time period, but I will just say, as the distinguished Senator from Texas knows, a constitutional debate is a different kind of debate on the Senate floor. This is not any other bill. The debate, of course, last week had to do with whether we could use the so-called class action bill as a vehicle to raise other issues that are of great importance to us in statutory form. This is a constitutional amendment, amending the Constitution of the United States, therefore leaving open other amendments relating to the Constitution. Somebody could offer an amendment eliminating the first amendment, modifying the first amendment, and all it takes is 51 votes. Somebody could offer an amendment--as I understand it, Senator Hollings is thinking very seriously about offering an amendment limiting campaign spending. That is actually one amendment that I have supported in the past. That takes 51 votes. Anyone who thinks that whatever amendments would be offered would be simply relevant to marriage I think would be faced with a rude awakening that this could open up the whole Constitution to a series of amendments, and maybe a good discussion about some of these other issues may be warranted. Again, it is a question of time.”