Political Savvy - Anyone else wonder if gay marriage is all part of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom master plan to ascend to higher office quickly? Not that he doesn't actually support the issue strongly, but could Gavin have had two simultaneous realizations: 1) SF is the Gay Mecca and he needs to strike while the iron is hot before stuffy New England states steal his thunder! and 2) How better to ascend to higher office quickly than becoming a hero to an entire voting bloc? It almost worked for Howard Dean. Plus, I'm sure Mayor Newsom is looking at the calendar: DiFi ain't getting any younger and Ahnuld will be termed out soon, and a few years down the road, gay marriage will be common and which puts a trailblazer like Newsom on the political fast track. Too cynical?

UPDATE: Of course, some people view the politics of the mayor's actions in an entirely different way than I do. Sac Bee columnist Peter Schrag thinks Newsom has given a gift to Bush: "Maybe Newsom has no wider political ambitions. But just as Bush, fearing a weakening political base, is working overtime to inflame the cultural right, couldn't Newsom have done his fellow Democrats a favor and waited a year before adding fuel to the fire?"