The Nation Blogs
Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You
Won – Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political
management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from
both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public
policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country,
including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco
Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science
Monitor.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
PRAISE
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand
politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
– Chuck Todd, NBC News political director
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
– Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every
day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news
and developments.”
– Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
– Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“If I were on the proverbial
desert island and had only one web site to access, Political Wire would
be it.”
– Dotty Lynch, CBS News political consultant
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too
often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the
latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes
his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don't want to kick.”
– Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
– Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I love Political Wire. It is a one stop shopping site for all the political information I need. It makes me sound brilliant so naturally I like it!”
– Dick Morris, political consultant
“I rely on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It's an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
– Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.
The Washington D.C. Council signaled its initial approval for a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage on Tuesday, paving the way for a final vote on the measure that is expected later this month.
The vote on the measure, which also has the support of Adrian M. Fenty, the city’s mayor, was 11-2.
In a statement, David A. Catania, one of two openly gay members of the council, said the vote was important “not only for the gay and lesbian community but for everyone who supports equal rights. Gays and lesbians bear every burden of citizenship and are entitled to every benefit and protection that the law allows.”
Marion S. Barry Jr., a former four-term mayor of Washington, was one of the two council members who voted against the bill. According to The Washington Post, Mr. Barry said he backed “the gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender community on almost every issue except this one.”
If its bill does become law, the nation’s capital would follow in the footsteps of a small group of states that permit gay marriage. Same-sex marriage is already legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont. Gay marriage becomes legal in New Hampshire next month.
Washington’s same-sex marriage bill would also need to pass a congressional review before it became law.
As The Times’s Ian Urbina recounted last month, the same-sex marriage debate sparked a dust-up between the city and Washington’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The church, whose social services wing is a large presence in Washington, has threatened to drop its contracts with the city over the gay marriage bill.
LAKEWOOD, N.J. – The leaders in the local large Orthodox Jewish community go to great lengths to keep out the outside world, discouraging nonbusiness use of the Internet and encouraging strict filters to keep the ungodly out when members must use the Web.
But last month, several rabbis and other elders did something astounding for them: They took a public stand on a political issue, declaring their opposition to same-sex marriage in the state.
“This really hurts us,” said Rabbi Osher Lieberman, a key figure in the community in the suburbs about 30 miles east of Trenton. “To say (it's) immoral is not enough.”
He said community members are being encouraged to do whatever they can to make sure lawmakers don't vote to recognize gay marriage.
In a state that leans a bit left, the conservative rabbis are one of a handful of groups taking a passionate – and maybe surprising – role in a debate that's likely to be decided by January. The newly political rabbis have joined a coalition including Roman Catholic bishops, evangelicals and some black and Latino leaders.
The other side of the debate, anchored by a well-organized, well-connected gay rights group, is getting a boost from heterosexual liberals.
When Republican Chris Christie unseated Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in the gubernatorial election last month, it gave gay-rights activists more urgency to try to achieve their long-held goal of getting a same-sex marriage bill through the Legislature before Christie takes office Jan. 19.
The reason is simple: Corzine supports the bill. Christie says he would veto it.
If it's not passed by the end of the legislative session, that means the window will close for now on New Jersey joining Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut as the only states to recognize gay marriage.
Democratic lawmakers have been wrangling over whether the matter will get a debate in the Legislature. Most party leaders say they won't bring it up unless it looks as though it will pass.
Gay-rights supporters and social conservatives alike have been lobbying lawmakers, though it's a debate that doesn't seem to be enrapturing the state as a whole. Two polls last month found the public is divided over the issue. One found narrow support, the other narrow opposition.
But the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, which found support, also showed that most residents think the issue is not a big deal.
It is a big deal to Betty Wyka, a museum employee from Parsippany who has long supported same-sex marriage. In February, she started volunteering for Garden State Equality, the state's main gay-rights group. Steven Goldstein, the chairman of the group, says that as a straight woman Wyka is typical of a new volunteer.
Wyka said she joined partly to counter a claim that gay-marriage opponents often make: that allowing gay couples to wed will make society value traditional marriages less.
“I got sick of hearing that same-sex marriage is going to impact my marriage. That's a bunch of hooey,” she said. “It's a civil rights issue.”
Lakewood's Orthodox community is mostly isolated from the rest of society. The men wear long beards, white shirts, black suits and black hats, and women are not nearly as visible as men. The community was founded in 1942 by a rabbinic leader who fled Poland and the Holocaust. It's now home to some 10,000 Orthodox families and the rabbinical school, which has more than 5,000 students.
Before last month's election, rabbis allowed distribution of a voting guide from the socially conservative New Jersey Family Policy Council. While religious institutions would not be required to marry gay couples, some say their religious freedom could be squeezed by permitting something they say runs against their beliefs.
Orthodox Jews, like many Christians, look to the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, which many interpret as saying that homosexuality is immoral.
A group of Lakewood community leaders granted an interview with an Associated Press reporter – a rarity and part of the effort to become involved in the push against gay marriage. The leaders said they're taking their position public because in the Internet age more information about the broader world is flowing into their community.
The large Orthodox community is not the first to speak out against the prospect of gay marriage. Last year, the New York-based Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America made a public statement in favor of California's Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment that outlawed gay marriage there months after a court allowed it.
And leaders in Lakewood say they received political guidance from some in the Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, N.Y. In New York, the state Assembly already has passed a law to allow gay marriage, and the Senate is considering whether to follow.
Orthodox Jews traditionally have been regular voters who oppose candidates who support abortion rights and gay rights, said Yaakov S. Ariel, a professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“The visible part is what's new,” Ariel said. “The opinions and the support of candidates is not new.”
What's especially troubling to some in Lakewood is not just that New Jersey might recognize same-sex marriages but that Orthodox Jews would be more likely now than in the past to know about it – and think that it's OK to be gay.
“These type of laws bring an exposure to our community,” Rabbi Aaron Sarscher said.
And that's why there's a new voice in the debate.
“I really don't believe in getting involved in government,” said another community leader, David Sofer. “But when an issue is so dangerous, you have to stop it.”
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
From the NY Times:
An Argentine couple’s attempt to unite in Latin America’s first gay marriage was thwarted Tuesday when city officials decided to block the wedding because of conflicting judicial rulings.
Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre showed up at the Buenos Aires civil registry office despite a national judge’s ruling late Monday that overturned a city court’s decision to permit them to wed. The first judge ruled again Tuesday that they could wed.
The couple, dressed in black suits, silver ties and a red band symbolizing AIDS awareness, waited for hours in the municipal office as officials debated which judge to obey. They were surrounded by supporters and a swarm of media.
”It’s hard to have to spend this day waiting for a right that should have been ours,” said Freyre, as he fought to hold back tears.
In a twist of events, the final decision fell to Mayor Mauricio Macri, who had originally given the green light to the wedding. Among cheers and chants in what felt like the final seconds of championship game, the lawyers came out to announce the news: The city would not allow the marriage until the Supreme Court has ruled on the case.
Gay rights groups expressed anger at the decision and said they would march to city hall in protest.
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