gay marriage: good news, bad vibes.

i'm unsurprised to hear that john thune is back in action and sounding as loony as ever. i'm not a huge tom daschle fan but yes, virginia, there really are differences between the parties -- even in south dakota.

rick santorum: just oozing with santorum, as ever.

in general: yes, it's a good thing that the marriage amendment is going to go down in flames. that's not a tough conclusion to come to. the real question is whether repubs will succeed in making it a campaign issue now that they have absolutely NOTHING else to talk about. unfortunately, i think the answer may be yes. it is always easier to think about the yucky, unfamiliar Otherness of the Others (whether those others are queer people or richy mcri...i mean, john kerry) than to admit that people you like and identify with, or at least have liked and identified with (dubya) have sold you out and betrayed your values.

it's times like these i wish i were back in grand forks, with its heavy concentration of military folks, so that i could see how bush's malfeasance plays there. [anne?] my question is whether an argument like michael moore's, stated less polemically, could turn the tide in low-mid income or heavily military towns. (that argument, as folks who have seen the movie know, is that this is a shit war fought on the backs of poor(er) people without other places to go.)