Mark Kirk Continues to Vote His Conscience and for His Constituents... Not for Political Expediency

Why do I support Congressman Mark Kirk? Many reasons, in fact, but one of the most important is that I truly believe he is a man of high principles, and one who casts his votes in Congress guided by those principles, and those of his constituents. It is true that you cannot please everyone, but Congressman Kirk is willing to take a tough vote that may rile some (or even many, on occasion) in the Republican party, as long as he truly believes that a bill is the right thing to do, and reflects the will of the people in this District that sent him to Congress seven years ago (and keep sending him back every two years).

I expect Kirk is going to get a fair amount of flack from a number of Republicans, especially those who are, shall we say, a little to the right of Attila the Hun, for voting in favor of HB 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or "ENDA." Kirk, along with fellow Republican Judy Biggert, voted in favor of the bill, which is intended to prohibit discrimination of employees on the basis of sexual orientation. The rest of the Illinois Republican Delegation voted against the bill, with Dan Lipinski as the only Democrat siding with the majority of Republicans.

ENDA is one of those extremely controversial bills that has been floated in various forms at various times, finally being massaged into a version that had a chance of passing the House. The final vote was 235 to 184, and the bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. We can count on Dick Durbin to vote for the senate version, but I wonder if Barack Obama will bother to show up? (he's missed 80% of senate votes since September, but we're still paying him...) But, I digress.

For a good pretty non-biased overview of ENDA, see here. The basic idea is that gays, lesbians and bisexuals should not be discriminated against in the workplace, making such discrimination a crime on the same order as race or religious discrimination. Businesses with less than 15 employees or "religious organizations" as defined in the bill are exempt, as is the military.

The conservative Christians are all over this bill, taking the position that "ENDA will enshrine homosexuality in federal law, providing activist judges with the legal ammunition to move toward the legalization of gay marriage," and that while "ENDA is billed as an expansion of equality, but it is really a 'gay' power grab that would severely curb constitutionally guaranteed 'unalienable' rights that Americans hold dear, including the freedoms of speech, religion and association."

Well, even though Mark is in for some hot water with some conservative voters, I am sure, one thing I do know is that the voters of the 10th District are too smart to be swayed by alarmist and homophobic rhetoric like the examples above. By and large, the people in the 10th make up their own minds, which is why Kirk's philosophy of "thoughtful, independent leadership" has played so well to his constituency. I encourage you to actually read the bill and make up your own mind, rather than let a special interest group dictate to you what to think.

Whether you are in favor of ENDA or against it, I hope the voters in the 10th will appreciate that Mark Kirk votes the way his conscience tells him and his constituents want him to, which is the idea behind our representative form of government. When he stops doing that, if ever, the voters in this District will let him know in no uncertain terms.

On a final note, not only did TA scoop his nemesis Ellen Beth Gill on this story, I have absolutely no doubt that she will fail to give Kirk any credit at all for casting a vote for a bill I am sure she personally supports. According to Ellen, Kirk takes the hard votes only for two reasons: one, when he is sure the vote won't matter because the bill won't pass the other chamber, or the President will veto, or some similar issue, OR two, Kirk must just be doing it for political cover. I think it's a sign of Ellen's and many other people's blind adherence to their own myopic view of the world that they simply cannot bear to acknowledge that Kirk, and even Bush, are not the cause of every problem in the world today, and even occasionally can do something they support. I won't be holding my breath for some Kirk kudos coming from Ellen, that's for sure. But, that's OK, because Mark didn't take that vote to gain points with Ellen, as much as she might like to think so.