Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

Does anyone think that Deval Patrick will be able to resist playing the race card against Tom Reilly, in the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling upholding a 1913 law preventing out-of-staters from obtaining marriage licenses here in their marriages won’t be recognized in their native states?

The 1913 law–which Reilly, as Attorney General, defended in court–was enacted in part to prevent interracial couples from obtaining marriage licenses in the Commonwealth during the Jim Crow era. Gay activists and the far left–Patrick’s base of support–insist that the law, once used as a tool to discriminate against interracial couples, is now being used to "discriminate" against gay and lesbian couples.

Does anyone now doubt that Patrick will now emphasize that his Democratic rival backed a law with a less-than-high-minded history?

In theory, Patrick would have difficulty linking Reilly to racism, considering the latter’s closeness to such prominent African-American Bay Staters as former US Attorney Wayne Budd and former district attorney Ralph Martin. However, one cannot forget Patrick’s history as an understudy to Bill Clinton, who unfortunately was able to convince some Americans that Rush Limbaugh bore rhetorical responsibility for the Oklahoma City bombing and that anyone who was opposed to racial quotas was a surreptitious bigot.

When it comes to political demagoguery, Patrick has learned from the master. So who’s to say he won’t use similar tactics to make Reilly look like the champion of a racist law?

Will this strategy allow Patrick to pull ahead of Reilly in the polls?

In this racially sensitive era, how could it not?

UPDATE: Reilly defends the ruling.

Liberals want Deval Patrick to release his tax returns. Why? I don’t care how much money Patrick has. I’m only concerned about how much money he’s going to take from me, via excessive taxation, if he gets elected! More from Jon Keller.

In a ruling sure to outrage Massachusetts liberals, the state Supreme Judicial Court, which ordered the commencement of same-sex marriage in November 2003, ruled today that out-of-state gay and lesbian couples cannot get married in Massachusetts if their native states do not recognize same-sex matrimony.

For the Bay State, the political ramifications of this ruling are substantial. Attorney General Tom Reilly, the state Democratic Party’s leading gubernatorial candidate, supported a 1913 law forbidding the marriage of any couple whose union would not be legally recognized in their native state, much to the chagrin of gay activists and the far left. That law was upheld by the SJC today.

Reilly’s decision to back this law is likely to come back to haunt him, especially as he battles far-left sex symbol Deval Patrick, a staunch gay-marriage backer. Reilly’s endorsement of a law that gay activists and the far left consider discriminatory–and the law’s subsequent validation by the SJC–will in all likelihood trigger a backlash that may finally start to see his inexplicably strong poll numbers come down.

Although venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli is making plans to enter the race on the Democratic side, a backlash against Reilly will redound to Patrick’s benefit (unless left-wingers make explicitly racial calculations about the African-American Patrick’s chances for success in the November election against Republican Kerry Healey and so-called independent Christy Mihos). If Reilly attempts to flip-flop on his previous support of the 1913 law, such indecisiveness will leave him even more vulnerable to being destroyed by Patrick.

Reilly’s strength in the polls was always built on a house of cards.

This ruling is likely to bring down the house.

UPDATE: As expected, Patrick condemns the ruling. More from the Herald.

SECOND UPDATE: Jon Keller on the ruling.

THIRD UPDATE: More from the Washington Times, Globe and Herald.

FOURTH UPDATE: Meanwhile, Chris Gabrieli makes it official.

Kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll has been freed in Iraq. More from the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Power Line.

UPDATE: From the Christian Science Monitor.

SECOND UPDATE: Carroll returns to Boston. More from the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times.

THIRD UPDATE: From Jeff Jacoby.

25 years ago today: the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

A Boston law school sets up a hotline for teenagers to register complaints about "police brutality." What mechanism does the school have in place to deal with those who make allegations that turn out to be false?

Elitism in a Boston suburb. More from Jon Keller.

Almost a year into their marriage, no one really cares that Seal and Heidi Klum are husband and wife. And that’s a good thing.

After a year of dating, the British singer and the German model/actress were joined in holy matrimony last May; Klum was pregnant with a child fathered by Seal at the time. (Seal had already taken over paternal duties for Klum’s first child, Leni.) Since their marriage, Seal and Klum have become just another celebrity couple. They don’t receive the sort of sensationalistic coverage accorded Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Their relationship is not depicted as some sort of exotic freakshow. They are simply, for all intents and purposes, two married celebrities, nothing more and nothing less.

This is nothing short of amazing, and demonstrates how deeply racial attitudes have changed over the decades.

It’s hard to believe that only fifty years ago, Sammy Davis Jr. was besieged by death threats–some from the Mafia!–because he dated Kim Novak and later married May Britt. The Hays Production Code forbade depictions of interracial relationships in Hollywood movies. Alan Freed’s variety show was famously canceled in 1957 after numerous complaints about singer Frankie Lymon being shown dancing with a white female teenager during a broadcast. In a still-shocking 1955 incident, a fourteen-year-old black teenager, Emmett Till, was beaten to death in Mississippi after supposedly whistling at a white cashier in a convenience store.

Now, five decades later, Seal marries Heidi Klum…and no one bats an eye. Same with David Bowie and Iman.

We often don’t think about how much things have fundamentally changed when it comes to race, so focused are we on present-day race-related problems that seem so stubborn. It’s as if we’ve been conditioned to always see the race-relations glass as near-empty, instead of half-full with more water being poured in.

The fact that the Seal-Klum marriage did not face any racial controversy of significance is evidence that, while race relations are far from harmonious in the 2000s, they are also far from horrendous. I’d say that’s something to sing about.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff sentenced to almost six years in prison for fraud.

Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger passes away at 88. More from Human Events and Power Line.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card steps down. More from the Washington Times.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card steps down. More from the Washington Times.

Prominent political consultant Lyn Nofziger, a former aide to Presidents Reagan and Nixon, passes away at 81. More from the New York Times.

An African-American Boston woman, almost shot yesterday as she returned from church, says "I have to pray harder." I hope she prays that the thug who nearly killed her is himself shot by the police!

UPDATE: At an anti-violence rally, some moron tells the Globe, ”Just because we wear baggy jeans and hoodies doesn’t mean we’re delinquents." Oh yes it does, pal.

What part of illegal do some people not understand? More from the Washington Times and Post.

UPDATE: More from Human Events.

SECOND UPDATE: More from Michelle Malkin.

THIRD UPDATE: Still more from Human Events.

FOURTH UPDATE: The Senate Judiciary Committee approves a watered-down immigration bill. More from the Washington Times, Washington Post and New York Times.

FIFTH UPDATE: Illegals rally in Boston.

SIXTH UPDATE: From Rich Lowry and the Washington Times.

SEVENTH UPDATE: Still more from Human Events and Thomas Sowell.

EIGHTH UPDATE: Bay State GOP gubernatorial contender Kerry Healey calls for the borders to be sealed.

NINTH UPDATE: Peggy Noonan on immigration.

TENTH UPDATE: More from the Washington Times.