The media's looking for a "good guy" and a "bad guy" in this story, and any kind of arrest will immediately anoint Newsom as the media's persecuted "good guy". Please remember that most everybody at the editor level was only a kid, or a really young journalist at the time of the 1960's civil rights or 1970's women's rights movements. They've been itching for the chance to recreate their own golden age, nothing since Watergate has made the mass media feel "heroic".
Bush also is well aware that you don't really need a "good guy", as long as you have a sufficiently targetable "bad guy", and he's being quite properly careful to avoid becoming that sinister figure in an election year. I expect him to be a little more to the liking of the folks on this forum after he no longer has a re-election to concern himself with, but he's gotta get through that election first.
A good ambiguous statement like being "troubled" serves his purposes. It helps to bring his opponents into the issue while they're still debating each other (you never know what Al Sharpton will say to get Kerry's goat!) When the President is pressed hard by a crusading journalist, he can certainly respond that he is "troubled" by the way that the SF mayor is going about this, without really breathing fire down on gays at this point. It also lets his supporters know exactly where he stands on the issue.
I know that some of you want Bush to grab an automatic weapon and start shooting at the lines of gays waiting to get into the SF courthouse, but it would trash the whole "compassionate conservative" thing he's been trying to build. If he hadn't been able to successfully sell that idea back in 2000, what do you all think President Gore would have done about MA and SF?
On a more serious note, "compassionate conservative" is just a Rove phrase for "liberal Republican".
You're right. Two different issues. The main issue is willful dis-obedience of the law by one sworn to uphold the law. And I would include the Mass. supremos as violators. Restore the law the other issue will resolve itself. If not, the 'marriage' issue will be the least of our worries before the year is over.
Oh, great Super Secret, Super Genius Plan number 12,345.
To all: Excellent analysis. Click and read.
In some ways, a righteous life-saving elected official in a culture steeped in evil attitudes and behavior must behave a bit like Raoul Wallenberg (and Abraham Lincoln).