Sh**! Sh**! Sh**! Sh**! This is SO effing frustrating, I don't know what else to say.

The only chance for ENDA now is if it's part of the Great Pelosi Employment Bill - whatever that ends up looking like.

The DNC is going to take a real hammering in the 2010 mid-terms. Say goodbye to a fillibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and they'll have a substantially reduced majority in the House too. Too early to tell how badly - but it looks like the Dems in the more marginal seats are very worried.

Unemployment is going to rise and rise again though, so an Emergency Employment Bill so long that no-one will have the time to read it (like every other such bill recently), and full of pork and handouts to friends, that will get passed so Congress can show they're "doing something about it" even if it's totally ineffective.

If we're lucky, ENDA will be included. If we're very lucky, it won't be traded off at the first opportunity to ensure passage.

Hopefully I'm being far too cynical. Anyone care to bet against this scenario though?

Jillian asked:

Are we seeing the beginnings of the old razzle-dazzle?

No, she is simply telling House Members that LGBT issues cannot pass the Senate, so there is no reason for the House to act. It's not just ENDA - all gay issues that cannot pass the Senate.

The solution is to replace some Senators or change their constituents minds. Sooner or later, we'll actually have to do that work. Just like cleaning out the attic.

My hope is that if Pelosi follows through as expected here that the LGBT community of San Francisco works to primary her and do whatever they can to remove her from office. Even if not successful, she should be held publicly accountable for her lies and repeated betrayals of our community's interests. Voters should understand exactly what they are voting for when they vote for Nancy Pelosi.

Given her constituency and her behavior, there is no greater hypocrite in the entire US Congress, and that's saying something.

At minimum, she can insist on the bill coming up for debate and a vote. That's the very least we should be able to expect from a Representative of the city with the highest percentage of LGBT residents in the entire country, don't you think?

It isn't just ENDA, it's everything. It's perverse how far to the right the Senate is (based on actions, not rhetoric) compared to the rest of America.

The problems are structural, and unless we deal with that, we can't deal with actual policy. Unfortunately, most people think the issue is the culture war, partisan bickering, or actual debate on the substance of policy. Those are distractions. What's broken is that the most we can do is vote the bums out and replace them with more bums.

I really don't have any idea other than third-party at this point. And we know how well that works in the US.

This reminds me of a few lines from the movie "The American President" which I will paraphrase, to make it more relevant to the current situation.

Our current political representatives are too worried about keeping their jobs and not worried (anywhere near) enough about doing their jobs.

Dr. Weiss:
Thank you for all the work you are doing on this.

Also, thanks for the transphobia articles. At least one person has learned something from them.

I keep wondering why we should worry about maintaining the big majority of 'Democrats', especially in the Senate--what the hell has that accomplished so far, on much of anything? It is certainly better in many ways than the Bush years, but the '60-vote' bloc in the Senate has been useless, and the Democratic White House has certainly fallen far, far below even my lowest expectations (and I mean on an overall progressive agenda, not just gay-family issues). Oh, and tho very much wanted President Obama to win, and rejoiced that he did, I always took him at his word when he said he was against same-sex marriage. For whatever it's worth...