as inevitible as the Gay Marriage passage in MN was in our fine progressive state, one can't help but wonder if the Marriage Amendment bill that was defeated in November wasn't a catalyst that spurred on a quicker resolution than would have happened otherwise
as you may recall, in November, Minnesotans defeated an Amendment on the ballot that would have legislated traditional marriage in the State Constitution. The amendment in question wouldn't have made Gay Marriage any more legal then it had been but no doubt would have been an additional hurdle to overcome, having been written into the state Constitution -
as a result there was a massive mobilization effort launched to defeat this Amendment in November and it was successful. So now you have this whole mobilized energized base - and they didn't go to sleep but kept pushing the issue forward to their legislators
The ironic part of all this is that Republican strategists basically admitted last year that the whole Amendment was a voter turnout hot-button issue for their party and now it turns out that by attempting to appeal to the lowest instincts of their constitutents, they may have ended up driving to the exact opposite outcome then they would have done had they just left everything alone - it still would have happened, but I kinda think it happened SOONER than it would have otherwise happened - (once Gov. Dayton does his part)
of course, let's not forget the best part - which is that Michele Bachmann says she may end up leaving the state of Minnesota - WOOT! - (ok, that's probably not the best part, but it's an added bonus) -
RB