Mr. Smith Emails Washington

I've got CSPAN-2 on in the background as I clean the house. Trent Lott is talking about why marriage is such an important issue that the Constitution of the United States must be amended to limit access to this institution to heterosexual couples. This is one of those hot-button issues that people are pretty much set on, so I won't rehash the debate. I've already done that in several previous entries.

Trent Lott just passed off the lectern citing laryngitis, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is talking about how, by declaring various state DOMA laws unconstitutional, the judiciary is taking citizens out of the process of determining state laws, and how a vote in the Senate is the only way to bring the people back in. I say, go with him on that. Whichever way you fall on this issue, take 30 seconds and click here to go to the U.S. Senate web site. There's a nifty drop-down menu from which you can select your state, and your two senators' names will pop up along with their office address. All you need to do is click on the name, and his/her website pops right up. They have a easy link to "contact," and once you click that, it's simply a matter of filling in the blanks to tell them who you are, verify that you are a constituent, pick a subject, and leave a brief comment about how you think your senator should vote. Repeat the process with the other senator. It really is that easy. While you're at it, here's the link to the U.S. House of Representatives where you can look up your congressperson by your ZIP code. The process is much the same, and the debate will get around to them sooner or later.

Senator Rick Santorum is now making some of the least persuasive arguments I've heard yet on this subject. Whoa! Back up the trailer! I am reasonably certain that Rick Santorum just implied that we need to keep homosexual couples from marrying because women have joined the workplace, depriving men of their traditional roles of "Provider and protector." I'm willing to entertain anyone's analysis on how that makes sense. I'm also willing to listen to an explanation of how machismo became a constitutional entitlement. I must not be getting all my memos.