That's so 2004...

Because not much else seems to be going in their favor right now, congressional Republicans will return this week to their old stand-by of attacking the Phantom Gay Menace by pushing a proposed constitutional gay marriage ban. So will President Bush, despite his promise last year not to press the matter as long as the Defense of Marriage Act was on the books.

The ban has no chance of getting the required two-thirds approval from both houses this year -- it may not even have majority support in the Senate anymore, and the country steadily is souring on the idea -- but that won't keep GOP lawmakers from wasting public resources to try to rally social conservative voters.

In one of those moments that just screams "unmitigated gall," Bush said today that as Congress debates whether to amend the Constitution to make gay people a group of second-class citizens, "we must remember that every American deserves to be treated with tolerance, respect, and dignity." Unreal.