Today the Senate is voting on the Matthew Shepard Act as an amendment to a Defense appropriations bill. And there is very little whining going on by Republicans in the Senate. Oh sure, Salon reports that Senator John McCain doesn’t think it appropriate for the Matthew Shepard Act to be included with the Defense bill, and there’s also a line in the reports there and at the New York Times with the bogus Christian conservative line that hate crimes legislation covering gay and lesbian citizens will threaten religious speech. Guys like James Dobson just don’t understand the difference between speech and physical violence, do they? Still, some say Dobson has given up, though he still rails against the so-called gay agenda. And while there are still whack jobs out there, like this guy at the right-wing WEBcommentary.com, and this guy at rightnews.com, there’s not a whole lot of Republican teeth gnashing over this one.

Could it possibly be that the same Republicans mounting a race-based attack on Sonia Sotomayor are flinching from going on the attack 24/7 on the issue of protecting gay and lesbian citizens from violence? That prospect seems ludicrous on the face of it, that they would risk losing the Latino vote for another generation but don’t want to further inflame voters who care for friends and relatives who are gay? My suspicion on that is that the GOP sees its biggest losses over the last few years not based in race or gender, but in social class, in those suburbs that swung away from them in the last couple elections. Their calculation is that Latinos are not so much the problem there as is the harsh social conservative “culture” message.

Look for the Republicans to distance themselves and meet with the social conservative hardliners only when the cameras aren’t running? Are they really that smart, and with the pervasiveness of media nowadays, is that even possible? I suspect not. There are some dull knives in that Republican drawer that probably think that can work, though. And with the Dems, there’s something to celebrate.

The Matthew Shepard Act is Ted Kennedy’s baby, and it appears it is going to make it into law. Whether Ted Kennedy is in the last years of his political career, or whether he soldiers on for another ten years or so, it seems clear that America will begin to celebrate that career over the next months, especially with the passage of this legislation and the healthcare bill. When the bill passes I envision a big press conference with Ted Kennedy and the Matthew Shepard Foundation as the start of a season of celebrations about Ted Kennedy. Sure, Attorney General Holder is the one making speeches about the bill, and fine words they are. From CNN:

“Hate crimes victimize not only individuals but entire communities,” Holder said.

“Perpetrators of hate crimes seek to deny the humanity that we all share, regardless of the color of our skin, the God to whom we pray, or the person who we choose to love. … The time is now to provide justice to victims of bias-motivated violence and to re-double our efforts to protect our communities from violence based on bigotry and prejudice.”

And while the Obama Administration and Holder will get credit for this legislation, the smart move by them is to give as much credit as possible to Ted Kennedy, to let him be the face of the celebrations as we near the celebrations that will inevitably happen at the end of his long Senate career.

The Republicans? They ought to stay quiet if they know what’s good for them, but I’ve no confidence they’ve got that sort of self-control.