Four prominent leaders of Iowa’s social conservative movement are criticizing the Republican Party of Iowa and its leadership in the state Senate for not doing more to overturn the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, saying if the next legislative session is no better, 2010 will be “the year of the primary.”

After the last four months, it seems that many of the politicians who currently serve in the House and Senate are not up to the task.

In an Op-Ed published on the blog The Iowa Republican, Bill Salier of Everyday America, Danny Carroll of the Iowa Family Policy Center, Kitty Rehberg of the Eagle Forum of Iowa and Brad Cranston of Iowa Baptists for Biblical Values said the state’s Republican Party is “nearly devoid of leadership.”

With a handful of encouraging exceptions, the Republican Party and many of the Republicans in elected office, showed no willingness to fight and very little Constitutional literacy. The official party apparatus and the Senate Republicans, by and large, failed to rally around the marriage issue.

The exceptions include state Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, who petitioned county recorders to ignore the ruling and refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and state Sens. Randy Feenstra and David Johnson, who spoke out on the Senate floor on the marriage issue.

Senate leadership was also were criticized because a bill starting the process of amending the state’s constitution was never introduced like it was in the House by Rep. Dwayne Alons, R-Hull, and Rep. Delores Mertz, D-Ottosen.

Worse than the absence of any strategic or political victory on this issue in the Senate is the lingering possibility that when push comes to shove, many would rather protect legislative traditions than take a stand to protect traditional marriage. The Republican “leaders” in the Senate, and their caucus, must quickly educate themselves on their Constitutional duties and make a decision to lead before the next legislative session.

This marks the second time in a week that social conservatives have openly criticized state Republicans because of their actions on same-sex marriage. Christian radio host Steve Deace had similar complaints about Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley and Republican Party of Iowa Chair Matt Strawn during his drive-time program on Iowa’s largest radio station.

And as pointed out by the liberal blog Bleeding Heartland, a Virginia-based conservative group called Public Advocate of the United States paid for fliers calling McKinley a “chicken” for not doing more to push for a vote on a marriage amendment.

In an interview with the Sioux City Journal’s Bret Hayworth, McKinley said four attempts were made to bring an amendment to a vote, citing Democratic obstruction as the reason they never materialized.