House Majority Leader Tom Delay thinks it would be difficult to find the needed 290 votes in the House. Senator Orrin Hatch, often a conservative leader on social issues, is unwilling to engage in gay bashing to solidify Republican support by social conservatives. Says Hatch:

"Everybody around here knows I don't believe in discrimination. I don't want to hurt gays. Some of the most talented people in our society today are gays."

Although Hatch supports a version of the amendment that would allow state recognition of civil unions, some social conservatives are angry that Hatch is searching for a middle ground.

"The problem in the Senate, and it's a serious problem, can be summed up in two words: 'Orrin Hatch,'" said Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation and a longtime conservative activist. "He is actively discouraging Republicans from supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, telling them, 'it's not going to pass, so why get yourself out on a limb?'"

Even the Republican who drafted the federal Defense of Marriage Act, former Representative Bob Barr of Georgia, opposes amending the Constitution. He will be the first witness at a hearing Tuesday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Why this lack of support on an issue that President Bush seized in his attempt to win reelection?

Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay-rights group, said some Republicans are pushing back from the issue, because it makes them uncomfortable. "This is a civil rights issue that is moving faster than anyone imagined, and most elected officials are afraid to be on the wrong side of history," he said.

As they should be. Don't expect to hear the President making gay marriage the front-and-center issue in his reelection speeches, given the tepid support his party is giving him on the issue.