Little Backlash as Gay Marriage Spreads

Gay marriage rights are spreading faster than ever, and it’s happening awfully quietly, reports Rick Klein of ABC News. Conservatives barely made a peep when gay marriage was legalized in Iowa or Vermont, and aren’t mounting much resistance to motions to do the same in New York, Connecticut, or New Hampshire. “It’s almost like the silence is deafening,” said one GOP pollster.

That’s no doubt in part because the changes are coming at the state level, without President Obama or Congress’ involvement. But it also appears that the social conservatives in the GOP are giving way to the fiscal conservatives. Utah’s Republican governor recently came out in favor of civil unions, and McCain adviser Steve Schmidt recently urged Republicans to embrace gay marriage, saying there was a “strong conservative argument to be made” for it. (More civil union stories.)