WHAT SURPRISE? HE'S DOING HIS JOB
Mayor's gay marriage stance surprises former foes
And good for him. Everybody who had opposed him as some sort of right wing Visigoth who was going to destroy the city's long held reputation of progressive politics in order to fatten the coffers of his big business overlords are totally flummoxed by this little bit of civil disobedience. And according to the article, his presence at crime scenes was a cause for pause among the local chattering class. I guess the San Frannies have been too long embraced in the soft comfort of politicians who played to the audience instead of playing the game.

Let me explain. The easy one first:
The crime scene thing: Why is this a surprise? It's a crime scene; the locus of a big-time felony investigation.
The place is crawling with cops. Why any Mayor before him didn't drop in on these things once in a while is the thing I'd be more interested in hearing about.

The marriages: He is actually giving his local business overlords their first bone. Hotels just gotta be enjoying a huge boost in the reservations bookings. I figure short term stay rates have doubled from the influx of same sex couples looking to swoop into town and tie the knot. The car rental companies are probably bringing in rides from wherever they can find them to rent to all the people getting off the planes, looking to get their shot at marital bliss. Them newlyweds are gonna wanna party after getting hitched; restaurants and catering halls are cleaning up at inflated rates. And then there's the media circus he just brought into town. Those folks are adding to the hotel bookings, the restaurants, the bars, and the city itself, because all the juice it takes to power all the hardware those media whores drag with them wherever they go costs long, cool green. And in the process he shoves his opponents back on their heels.

Pretty savvy, you ask me. He's in a win-win situation here. Short term, he's earning a ton of warm feelings from people who didn't vote for him, while feeding the city's businesses the dollars they crave. Long term? Screw the long term! In the long term the whole thing ends up getting argued in the courts and it's out of his hands. If the courts say he's right, he's a hero. The courts smack him, he can point at somebody else and say, "Hey, I fought the fight! That bastard shut me down!"

As far as his conservative backers...please. Go look at the recall results. Just how many conservatives are there in the Bay Area, really. They're an endangered species in that burg.