California nurses association and gay marriage

Two things were evident amid the fusillades of confetti and extended glad-handing at last week's endorsement of gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom by the politically powerful California Nurses Assn. It looked, as the lieutenant governor said, like an election night celebration — a hotel ballroom littered with bits of paper lofting skyward, shrieks of approval at everything Newsom said, 35 minutes of adulation and picture-taking from the mostly female audience he waded into after his speech. Right after those theatrics, however, the matter of timing arose in the most horrific way, as news spread of the mass shooting at a holiday party in San Bernardino. As Newsom spoke to reporters, authorities in the Inland Empire desperately searched for the attackers. By that he meant approving a measure he's pushing for the ballot that would, among other things, outlaw possession of large ammunition magazines and require background checks on any ammunition.

The longtime consumer activist acknowledged Democratic fears that his run for the White House might hurt Vice President Al Gore's chances of winning the White House, but said a loss would refocus the party's attention on its core principles. Wednesday's endorsement by the 31,member, Oakland-based California Nurses Association was the union's first for a presidential candidate. This is Nader's second run for the presidency. In , he mounted a largely symbolic bid that garnered only , votes -- about three-quarters of 1 percent of the electorate.

A decade ago, California Lt. Gavin Newsom was less a Democratic rock star and more a party millstone. A decade later, Newsom is hardly between a rock and a hard place. That makes him a prohibitive favorite to shorten his current job title come November.