I just received a robocall from Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, the homophobic group opposed to marriage equality, that purported to be a survey but was really just a push poll designed to drum up opposition to same-sex marriage before Thursday’s Senate vote.
I hung up. Maybe I should have taken the poll and skewed its results.
Seven state senators voted in favor of marriage equality yesterday; 21 are needed to get it through the Senate and to the Assembly. With Jennifer Beck voting no yesterday, that means supporters of same-sex marriage can only lose one more Democrat — though two are on record as opposing same-sex marriage. The odds are not particularly good, unless Beck or Chip Bateman can be convinced to move from the “no” column to the yes column.
Here is the contact info for potential (and former) fence-sitters:
I think this covers everyone, but feel free to add or comment.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to release the marriage equality bill to the full Senate by a 7-6 vote. Sen. Bill Baroni, a Republican who represents Middlesex and Mercer counties, stayed true to his word and voted to support the bill, which would grant same-sex couples the right to marry but grant religious groups an exemption from being forced to recognized or perform the marriages.
Voting against the bill were the committee’s other four Republicans — including Jennifer Beck, who represents parts of Monmouth and Mercer counties — and two Democrats, the committee chairman, Paul Sarlo, and its vice chairman, John Girgenti.
The religious objections, understandable if left to the religious realm, are inappropriate within a secular context. The Catholic Church — and other religious groups — want to imprint their religious philosophy (or in the case of the church, only a portion of its philosophy, with it weighing in loudly only on abortion and homosexuality, but not the death penalty or poverty issues), which is a violation of the religious rights of other denominations and the secular.
The legislation sponsored in the Senate by Loretta Weinberg and several others and in the Assembly by Reed Gusciora and several others protects the rights of the religious and the rights of same-sex couples and should have been supported by every member of the committee.
Here is an interesting blog entry on The New York Post site from Mets beat writer Joel Sherman on the state of the Mets as baseball heads into the winter meetings and the offseason gets moving in earnest. The upshot is that the Mets should use the $25 million they have wisely, spread it around and stay away from the big-ticket free agents. Focus on getting to the mid-season in good shape and then go from there. Interesting thinking, given the weakness of this year’s free-agent market.
I’d bring Carlos Delgado back to the Mets if I were Omar Minaya, provided he appears healthy. He’s their best option at first, far better than Adam LaRoche, and he has a real presence in the lineup. He’s older, but he could probably be had for short term and it would allow the team to go hard at Matt Holliday to play left, which is a major need (Jason Bay would be a possible backup, though how he might fare in Citi Field worries me). The team also desperately needs a No. 2 starter and will be shopping in a weak market: Joel Pineiro, late of the Cardinals, seems like a fluke; Randy Wolf has too many injury questions to bring onto a staff with injury and consistency issues; Jason Marquis and Jon Garland are innings eaters, who would seem to be the best fits, but not only if the money is right.
Also on the radar, apparently, are Orlando Hudson (if the Mets can rid themselves of Luis Castillo) and Bengie Molina, who still has some gas in his tank but is not the player he was when he signed with the Giants three years ago.
In the best of all worlds, the Mets lineup would look like this:
Wright hitting second? Only because it seems silly to push Francoer to the seven spot. What I like about the structure of this lineup is its balance — 1, 3 and 5 are either swith hitters more comfortable as lefties or lefties, while 2, 4 and 6 are righties.
And yet, I just have this sense that the Mets will be running some mix of mediocrities out there in left and that Henry Blanco will be getting way too many at bats for the Mets to contend.
