Come On, Harry

Harold Ford, Jr. had pretty much clinched my vote (not necessarily because of his strengths, but because of the nasty campaign tactics used against him and his opponent's inability to articulate a vision). But yesterday he had to go and say the following in response to the New Jersey court decision giving same-sex couples the right to legally recognized unions:

"I do not support the decision today reached by the New Jersey Supreme Court regarding gay marriage. I oppose gay marriage, and have voted twice in Congress to amend the United States Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. This November there's a referendum on the Tennessee ballot to ban same-sex marriage - I am voting for it."

Why is Ford even bringing this up? Same-sex marriage has been a non-issue in the Tennessee senate race. And the New Jersey decision doesn't necessarily mandate marriage; it simply grants equal rights and benefits to same-sex couples, which is the fair and just thing to do. Here's a little more about the decision:

The high court on Wednesday gave legislators six months to either change state marriage laws to include same-sex couples, or come up with another mechanism, such as civil unions, that would provide the same protections and benefits.

The court's vote was 4-to-3. But the ruling was more strongly in favor of same-sex marriage than that split would indicate. The three dissenting justices argued the court should have extended full marriage rights to homosexuals, without kicking the issue back to legislators.