Congressional Republicans are using the defense appropriation debate to reignite long-simmering culture wars by adding patently homophobic amendments to the Department of Defense's 2012 budget.

In one instance, North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx included an amendment that would prohibit funding if the DOD doesn't explicitly back DOMA.

"The proposed amendment would reaffirm Congress' expectation that funds shall not be used for benefits, such as housing, education, medical services, transportation, etc., for same-sex couples on the same basis as opposite-sex married couples," reads Foxx's amendment.

Meanwhile, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton proposed his own amendment that bans any appropriation funds from being used to host civil union or same-sex marriage ceremonies, as if that would ever happen, and introduced another tack-on that would prohibit the Department from training combat troops on Don't Ask, Don't Tell's repeal.

While it's unclear how their amendments will impact the defense budget debates, Foxx and Burton make one thing painfully obvious: the Republicans are still willing to hold up legislative progress in the name of their social conservative politics.

It's queer that the GOP, a party whose members regularly claim they love America more than their liberal counterparts, would be willing to obstruct and hamper democratic action just because they want to whip up conservative support.

I'm can't say I'm surprised by such tactics, of course, especially from Foxx, who has previously, and repulsively, claimed that Matthew Shepard's murder was a robbery, not a hate crime, and therefore qualifies as a hoax.