Blunt Will Vote Against Troop Funding Because Of Hate Crimes Provisions

The Post-Dispatch's Bill Lambrecht tweets that Roy Blunt will vote against the FY2010 defense authorization bill because it includes hate crimes provisions designed to protect gays and lesbians.  The provisions Blunt opposes would expand federal hate crimes to include attacks based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or mental or physical disabilities.

The House passed the same protections in the "Matthew Shepard Act" in April by a 249-175 vote, which are supported by more than 300 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations.  That legislation was then added to the DOD authorization bill in July by the Senate by a 63-28 vote. 

Once upon a time, Roy Blunt and Congressional Republicans attacked Democrats for opposing war spending legislation, suggesting that their actions would negatively impact funding for troops in a time of war.  In March 2007, Blunt said the following about a supplemental war spending bill:

"House Democrats find themselves in a tough political spot right now, but that hardly gives them license to further delay the delivery of these vital funds for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "There's a reason the supplemental bill is filed under 'emergency spending,' and it's not so that we can sit around and wait for Democrats to think through their political challenges instead of actively engaging the logistical ones."

As I noted in June, I don't see a problem in voting against defense or war spending bills if you don't like what's in them. If Roy Blunt finds the idea of including sexual orientation alongside race and gender in hate crimes law so reprehensible that he's willing to vote against the whole defense budget, fine.  But the hypocrisy of Blunt and some of his GOP colleagues regarding the alleged evils of voting against such bills is still hard to stomach.