Gay Marriage: California, Iowa

Gay Marriage: California, Iowa

Media coverage from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

More analysis from Iowa City will be... focused on Iowa. House just passed a gay-marriage ban amendment. 54-44. Three Republicans voted no. The Dems could have won this. But seven Democrats took the low road.

Four were from rural districts, but I won't give them a pass. I RAN in a rural district and while I didn't win I didn't feel the need to sink to the least common denominator. Some issues are worth taking a stand and while I chickened out on a couple, I like to think this one is worth fighting for, worth being a LEADER on.

A Democrat just last year won a later version of my district by beating my old opponent - and he voted No. So a Hee-Haw salute tonight to Rep. Nathan Reichardt of Muscatine. SAAAAL-OOT. (and thanks to the Johnson County delegation too)

It's the three urban Democrats - Paul Shomshor of Council Bluffs, Wayne Ford of Des Moines and Swati Dandekar of Marion - that I'm most disappointed in. I've got no great love for Shomshor- he was all set to head up Lieberman's campaign in Iowa until Joementum bailed on the caucuses, so obviously he's a cultural Neanderthal. But I expected better things from Wayne and Swati.

This thing should die in the 25-25 Senate. And you could argue that in a Democratic House it never would have come up. Probably true. But that still doesn't make it right to vote wrong.

Politics | Iowa