Dept. of Self-Unawareness: Gingrich Edition

Every Georgian I know is dying to hear what serial adulterer, and twice-divorced, Newt Gingrich has to say about yesterday's federal court ruling overturning California's gay marriage ban as unconstitutional. He didn't keep us waiting long:

In every state of the union from California to Maine to Georgia, where the people have had a chance to vote they've affirmed that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Congress now has the responsibility to act immediately to reaffirm marriage as a union of one man and one woman as our national policy.

I think in his haste to comment on a hot news story, Gingrich may have left some words out. When he says marriage is between "one man and one woman" I think he meant to include the words "at a time, and except for the inevitable overlap that comes because I haven't yet worked up the nerve to tell my current wife that I'm sleeping with someone I work with and plan to marry her so just sign the papers and shut up."

Gingrich is an easy target. When a guy who left his first wife during her cancer treatment to marry someone else, then left the second wife to marry a young member of his staff, mouths off about the sanctity of marriage, it's easy to laugh. But that's not Gingrich's only hypocrisy.

The main Republican talking point about the Prop 8 being overturned is that a single judge overturned the will of seven million or so voters.

In other words, Republicans who dislike the court's ruling (including Gingrich) are saying the majority should get its way. Never mind that Republican leaders have no objection to federal judges overturning popular gun restrictions around the country. And never mind that the U.S. Senate's obstructionist Republican minority rump has repeatedly blocked the extension of unemployment benefits - and several other important actions popular with a clear majority of the U.S. Senate.

Just like marriage, the rule of the majority is sacred to Republicans; until something better comes along.