Rob Carpick says he thought he might persuade state lawmakers to allow the University of Wisconsin to begin offering domestic partner benefits on the basis of simple economics. So Carpick, who is gay, wrote the co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee earlier this month to explain that he's brought in more than $2.5 million in research grants during the five years he's been an assistant professor of engineering at the UW-Madison. In an e-mail to Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, Carpick noted that Gov. Jim Doyle estimated the cost of providing full benefits to domestic partners - unmarried heterosexual couples as...