In Brief: The Real October Surprise - Gay Marriage Ruling in New Jersey:
All over Left Blogsylvania, there's been aching suspicion about why the Bush administration has had an unsettling, pod-people-like calm about the upcoming midterms, with Karl Rove, as reported by the mainstream media, achieving a Zen-like state of smug optimism. Part of the insistent questioning is the paranoia induced by Republican electoral terrorism in the past; part of it is a very real possibility of something happening, either before (see Iran) or on election day (see Diebold).

The sinister genius of Karl Rove is that he knows the nutzoid base needs only a nudge to ramp up the hate and get out the vote. And he knows where that nudge is coming from this year, as it did in 2004, and it ain't even from him. Today, at 3 p.m., the New Jersey Supreme Court will announce whether or not the state constitution allows gay marriage. Chances are that gay Jersey boys are gonna get to be queens for a day, and, hey, that's cool, the only right thing to do, and it's gonna be manipulated into a battering ram by the Christian right that'd do the Vikings proud.

As Atrios said, the media will be going 24/7 with images of women kissing at Garden State altars. To counterprogram, the Democrats better be ready to show the public where Mark Foley buried alive pages who spurned his advances.

Let's wait and see, eh? Back later with Bush's press conference.