Iowa judge strikes down gay marriage ban

Crooks and Liars has the story from the Des Moines Register:

A Polk County judge on Thursday struck down Iowa's law banning gay marriage.

The ruling by Judge Robert Hanson concluded that the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and he ordered the Polk County recorder to issue marriage licenses to six gay couples.

"This is kind of the American Dream," said plaintiff Jen BarbouRoske, of Iowa City. "I'm still feeling kind of shaky. It's pure elation, I just cannot believe it."

Kos reacted yesterday:

This will be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, and who knows where it'll go from there. But this is Iowa. Just a bit over four months from the caucuses.

This is now an issue in the presidential campaign.

As Todd over at MyDD says, the GOP will trip over itself blasting "activist judges" blah blah blah. But on our side, how will they react?

Our candidates should embrace it. They'll be too chickenshit to do so, but they should. Without reservation.

In this political climate, Republicans will get little salience on the issue -- which is dying anyway. Remember that Red Arizona, last year, was the first state to reject a ballot initiative banning gay marriage. With people losing their homes, and our troops losing their lives in Iraq, people have more important things on their mind than whether two people who love each other should be allowed to marry or not.

The Democratic presidential candidates opposition to gay marriage is pretty pathetic, in my opinion. I don't think they actually oppose it, because when asked why they can never seem to provide a coherent answer. It's really not sticking your neck out too far to come out in favor of gay marriage, since the trend lines are all pointing towards greater and greater acceptance of it.