Both Paul Wellstone and Harold Ford voted for the Defense of Marriage Act. You know, the law that does the exact same thing as the constitutional amendment that Ford supports now?
When I worked for Paul, back in 1999, I asked him about his vote. At first, he joked that he was more conservative than I thought he was. But then he got more serious, and tried to convince me that he voted for DOMA because he had been married for a very long time and was a traditionalist when it came to marriage. That's what he told the public at that time too.
I didn't believe him. I knew he was in the middle of a reelection fight, and probably just made the vote he needed to make to get reelected. Later he acknowledged that his vote was a mistake in his book, Conscience of a Liberal.
I admired Paul back then, in 1999, despite his vote for DOMA. And I still admire him today. He had a profound impact on my life.
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