On PBS, CNN’s Toobin Insists We’ll Have ‘Gay Marriage’ In 50 States Within 10 Years, Slams Obama for Cowardice
On Monday, PBS talk show host Charlie Rose decided to discuss the passage of a “gay marriage” law in New York with two New York Times reporters and a writer for The New Yorker — not exactly a divided or diverse panel. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin (also with The New Yorker) predicted to Rose that we're less then ten years out from the Supreme Court proclaiming “gay marriage” must be recognized in all 50 states: The question I have is, when will the Supreme Court arrest the issue, because I don't think they are in any rush to do it. I think at the end of the day they will say that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. You can`t have one kind of marriage for straight people and one kind of non-marriage for gay people. But I don't think they are in any rush to do that and I think it will maybe be five years or maybe be ten years, and at that point the whole country will have it. As with Roe v. Wade, he said, states would not be allowed to ban it. New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore felt Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done something “gigantic” for liberals here: This is a guy who spent post of the last six months cutting spending, cutting budgets, avoiding tax hikes, displeasing the base of his own party, but pleasing from the poll numbers, the vast majority of New Yorkers who have watched Albany overspend in their minds. And so for a guy who had not really demonstrated his credentials with some liberal, this is a gigantic thing for him. He could, I am not being trite here, but he could fire half a state workforce now and he would not have a ton of blowback from the base of his party because this is such a huge thing for everybody and a huge victory for him and gives him enormous capital on the left to allow him to be a fiscal conservative in a state that hasn`t always been. Then this one-sided conversation turned to gay New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney expressing patience with the “evolution” of Obama on “gay marriage,” but Toobin found Obama's failure to go left disgusting: ROSE: What about the gay community and their attitude about Barack Obama? ADAM NAGOURNEY: I mean, I think the big — I mean, to me, that is a big question here, I think you saw, I thought you saw Barack Obama — I mean if I am reading the stories right I thought you saw Barack Obama, quote- unquote, “evolve.” And I am one of those people who believe based on some knowledge, as much as you can know I do think he probably never did have a problem with gay marriage and changed his position when he wanted to run for president and Senate and that`s the way the world works when I saw those stories about him evolving I saw him go in a direction I thought he would go. TOOBIN: Can we be a little bit cynical? I just think, you know, frankly, Obama's position is pretty appalling here, I mean, you know, all of us sitting around saying, well he obviously believes in same sex marriage. Well, if he believes in same sex marriage say it!
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on June 30, 2011. Filed under