A Stitch in Haste

A quick follow-up to this morning's post:

In Virginia, the court decision could not have come at a better time for Senator George Allen, a Republican whose campaign for re-election has been thrown off course by allegations he used racially insensitive remarks. The Virginia ballot includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Allen supports it; his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, argues the ban is unnecessary.

Note that Webb does not support gay marriage; he just believes that a bigot amendment is "unnecessary." Gee, thanks. (Webb does say that he supports civil unions.)

In Tennessee, another state with a proposal to ban gay marriage, Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., a Democrat running for Senate, was sparring with Republicans over an advertisement in which the Republican National Committee asserts Mr. Ford supports gay marriage — an assertion Mr. Ford says is wrong. On Thursday, he responded with his own advertisement, calling the Republican ad "despicable, rotten lies."

Heaven forbid that people mistakenly think that a Democrat actually supports gay marriage, which would be a "despicable, rotten lie."

Feel free to add anecdotes from your local races in the comments.

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It's obviously too early to gauge whether the New Jersey ruling will really catalyze (in ways that Iraq, North Korea, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley or Bridges to Nowhere never could) a renewed interest among Red State Rednecks to actually, um, vote.

But in the meantime:

Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson, for example, held "Stand for the Family" rallies in three cities in September and October, drawing considerably smaller crowds than anticipated. The first rally, in Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, attracted 3,000 people to a 17,000-seat arena that Focus on the Family had predicted would be full.

The next two rallies, in St. Paul, Minn., on Oct. 3 and Nashville on Oct. 16, were moved from stadium-size venues to smaller auditoriums, and the tickets, which had been on sale for $7, were given away.

Apparently the "will of the majority" is to stay home and watch television. Go figure.