In a letter to the House speaker, John A. Boehner, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that the Justice Department shared the view of plaintiffs in a lawsuit in Massachusetts that such laws — including a part of the Defense of Marriage Act, and statutes governing veterans’ benefits —are unconstitutional.

Mr. Holder announced nearly a year ago that the Obama administration would no longer defend a section of the Defense of Marriage Act that prevents federal recognition of same-sex marriages that are legal at the state level. In response, House Republicans hired a legal team to defend it in the other lawsuits..

Mr. Boehner and other Republicans have strongly criticized the move, saying the Justice Department has a duty to defend federal statutes. A spokesman for Mr. Boehner’s office referred questions to lawyers hired by the House, who did not respond to an e-mail.

As in the earlier case, the administration also said Friday that it would continue to enforce the statutes applying to same-sex military spouses unless Congress repealed them or a court ruling striking them down. In his letter on Friday, Mr. Holder invoked the same reasoning that he cited a year ago in the other cases: laws treating people in same-sex marriages differently from heterosexual relationships serve no compelling government interest and violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

“The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex spouses of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans,” he wrote. “Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that could warrant treating these provisions differently from” the marriage act.

The lawsuits that generated the administration’s decision a year ago involved civilian legal matters, such as the right of a surviving spouse not to pay estate taxes on inherited assets. The new lawsuit involves military-related matters.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/us/holder-backs-equal-benefits-for-gay-couples-in-military.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Jonathan Ernst/ReutersU.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) addresses the American Conservative Union’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, February 9, 2012.

The Republican leaders in the House are hopping mad. Fed up. They’re not going to take it anymore.

House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (not to be confused with the actor of the same name who starred in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”) said today that because the Democrats won’t agree to pay for an extension of the payroll tax holiday with spending cuts, they are going to vote on a bill that would extend the payroll tax holiday without any spending cuts.

I’m not making this up. It’s in a statement from their offices that I first read on TPM.

It explains that the Republicans really wanted a bipartisan agreement, but “to date, Democrats have refused virtually every spending cut proposed.” And if Democrats “continue to refuse to negotiate in good faith, Republicans may schedule this measure for House consideration later this week pending a conversation with our members.”

Passing a clean extension of the payroll tax is just fine. Of course, there is some pretty lame spin in this announcement. It claims that while Republicans were slaving away over a mutually-agreeable plan, the Democrats were proposing “job-threatening tax hikes on small business job creators.” Translation: the Democrats were trying to raise taxes on people who make over $1 million a year.

“In the face of the Democrats’ stonewalling and obstructionism, we are prepared to act to protect small businesses and our economy from the consequences of Washington Democrats’ political games,” the statement said.

Imagine that. The House Republicans are going to pass a vitally important measure bringing relief to middle class Americans in a time of economic distress. I’d say the Republicans are putting the American people ahead of their animus for the Democrats—but they haven’t fully demonstrated their good will. Congress also needs to extend unemployment insurance, and the statement suggests that Republicans aren’t ready to cave on that vital legislation. They probably want to make the Democrats demand it, so that it looks like they can’t take “yes” for an answer.

There’s a lesson here: If the Congressional Democrats and the White House stand firm on a principle, and keep up the heat, it may be possible to get the Republicans to back down. I can’t resist pointing out that they should have learned this lesson a lot earlier.

Article source: http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/a-lesson-in-negotiation/?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

WASHINGTON — Unpopular and divided, the once mighty House Republicans are laboring to repair their image and frame a new agenda.

Absent for now is a big, contentious docket similar to last year’s, which included the goal of writing new health care legislation to replace the Obama administration’s law. A long-promised overhaul of the tax code seems out of reach. When Representative Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican and majority leader, issued a memo this week laying out the body’s initial legislative agenda, a centerpiece was a modest tax cut for small businesses.

With their poll numbers sinking and President Obama attacking them — and poking fun in a weekend speech at the infighting among their leaders — House Republicans long to establish a reputation as the party of job creation and to blunt the notion that they are recalcitrant and combative.

Senior Republicans are eager to minimize the drama, letting the party’s presidential candidate, when he is finally chosen, take the lead.

”Most of us expect the major decisions aren’t going to be made this year,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a former chairman of the House Republican campaign committee. ”It’s a very political year. The big thing for us is to not be part of the conversation instead of trying to inject ourselves into it.”

But attracting positive attention while avoiding confrontation is proving to be a challenge in an election year, particularly for a group that in 2011 seemed to relish showdown after showdown.

Members are still struggling to sing from the same legislative hymnal. Many want to do bigger things, like a tax code overhaul and changes to the Medicare program. Others, including Mr. Cantor, knowing they will get no help from Senate Democrats, seem to favor more incremental steps.

Many of the more conservative members, particularly some freshmen, want to continue taking the good fight to Democrats.

”We should focus on standing for principle and put the politics aside,” said Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, who is in a Republican primary fight for a seat in the Senate. ”You have to keep doing what you think is the right thing to do.”

Others desperately want to find bipartisan compromises that can become law. ”The system is designed to make things difficult,” said Representative John Campbell of California. ”You just have to persevere. Agreements take time, and they’re supposed to.”

Outside pressures from each end of the political spectrum, which have dogged the House all year, are myriad: a five-year transportation bill, a major priority of Speaker John A. Boehner, is already being attacked by the left, for including new oil drilling as a way to pay for the bill, and the right — Heritage Action for America, a conservative group, is urging Republicans to reject new highway spending.

Further, Mr. Boehner and Mr. Cantor, whose strained relationship recalls the days of the intraparty intrigue that bedeviled Newt Gingrich as speaker, have had to spend time trying to stamp out perceptions that they are working at dangerous cross-purposes.

Their tensions are so well known that Mr. Obama joked about the two at a black-tie banquet Saturday night. (”Speaker Boehner, it is good to see you at the head table. I know how badly Eric Cantor wanted your seat.”) Members grouse regularly about the seeming divisions, and Mr. Cantor’s staff felt it necessary this week to extensively explain that their two staffs had called a truce.

”As you’re clearly aware,” Mr. Boehner said Thursday, ”there have been some staff rumbles from time to time, but that’s to be expected when you’re doing big things. And members and our staffs, they’re passionate about what they do. Sometimes that leads to some disagreements.”

Also, a tangle in December over extending the payroll tax cut pitted House Republicans against Senate Republicans, who argue that their House colleagues need to settle down and find a uniform message with them.

”A body of 535 doesn’t sing easily in one chorus,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. ”I would get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say three words: ‘the Obama economy,’ ” he said, ”Then say, ‘They’ve been in charge, they made it worse, we can make it better.’ And remember all three messages.”

Article source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFDC173AF930A35751C0A9649D8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss