Busch blocks vote on marriage

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ANNAPOLIS -- Democratic lawmakers in Maryland, determined to avoid a vote on homosexual "marriage" in an election year, closed the House yesterday to quash a constitutional amendment endorsing traditional marriage.

In a move unprecedented in the modern history of the General Assembly, House Speaker Michael E. Busch abruptly recessed the chamber to block a vote on a proposed amendment that would define marriage as a union only of one man and one woman.

The Democratic speaker's action allowed the House Judiciary Committee to kill the proposal later yesterday, likely preventing it from being voted on by the full House this session.

"It's game-playing," said Delegate Anthony J. O'Donnell, Southern Maryland Republican and minority whip. "It is one more example of unchecked power by a [Democratic] majority that has been in control of the House for 180 years."

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican who supports the amendment, said closing the House was "at least, an abuse of the spirit of the rules."

As he left the House chamber yesterday morning, Mr. Busch said his decision to recess had nothing to do with the amendment. "We have a lot of work to do today," the Anne Arundel County Democrat said.

Mr. Busch also said the amendment would be debated today on the House floor.

But tensions escalated when Judiciary Committee Democrats changed the amendment's bill to include civil unions as an equivalent to "marriage" for same-sex couples.

The change passed 11-10, and three Democrats -- Delegates Kevin Kelly of Allegany County, Darryl A. Kelley of Prince George's County and Theodore Sophocleus of Anne Arundel County -- joined Republicans in opposition to it.

The committee then sent the rewritten bill to the full House with a unanimous, unfavorable report. Such a report renders a House bill dead, notwithstanding a complicated parliamentary move to resurrect it.