As Rome Burns...

Nero fiddles and the GOP focuses on "values" issues.

The House, acting on what Republican leaders call their "American Values Agenda," will vote today on an amendment to ban same-sex marriage, then move on to legislation protecting the Pledge of Allegiance from pesky federal judges. As early as Wednesday night, House members are likely to vote to sustain President Bush's first veto -- on a bill expected to pass the Senate today to fund federal embryonic stem cell research.

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The "Pledge Protection Act" -- which would bar federal courts from hearing challenges to the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance -- has its own problems. Just before the House's July 4 break, the bill actually died in the House Judiciary Committee on a 15 to 15 vote when seven Republicans failed to cast their votes and one, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), voted no. He argued that the measure would weaken the federal judiciary and give a future liberal Congress license to keep conservative causes out of federal courts.

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Coming soon will be a bill to protect public officials against monetary damages in lawsuits brought against the courthouse display of the Ten Commandments and other religious symbols; the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, which would require doctors performing late-term abortions to inform their patients that fetuses feel pain, a contention disputed by some doctors; a ban on human cloning; a measure affording gun dealers more protection from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and another, responding to gun confiscations by New Orleans police after Hurricane Katrina, to prohibit police from using federal funds to impound guns in the wake of a disaster.