It is not smart to kiss off your main constituency for any special interest group.

It is especially costly when your political opponents (in both parties) will sharpen their knives to take you out at your next election.

It continues to amaze me that the lessons of the 2010 elections were lost on so many Republicans. No sympahy for those who simply refuse to learn.

Such is the political cesspool that is New York.

Such is the political cesspool known as the democrat party....

"Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and gay-rights advocates vowed to do everything in their power to protect them against political retribution. State Senator Stephen M. Saland, one of four Republicans to vote to legalize same-sex marriage, conceded to his Democratic opponent on Thursday."

Suckers! Didn´t you learn anything from Lucy and the football?

This will all soon be moot as the SCOTUS will make law this June and declare Same Sex Marriage the law of the land by Fiat with Johnny Roberts, Chief Judgie, leading the charge...

And they believed the democrats!,

A survey in 2012 indicated that only 2% of the population is gay and only 75,000 gay marriages have been performed since allowed is several states. Their political voting power is actually less than liberals would have you believe. Of course, they do attract the democrat vote, but probably not enough to be significant. It is a wedge issue, and republican candidates shouldn´t be hasty in believing the exaggerated numbers.

To put this all in perspective, an average of 2.3 million marriages are performed in the US each year. I don´t know what this all means, except maybe the noisy wheel gets the grease.

Never ever ever ever trust a democrat.

We conservatives give all these issues credibility by fighting about them. I don´t give a rip about Jack marrying John. It´s God´s job to sort out people´s choices, not mine.

If we claim to be a free country with our rights endowed by our Creator, this should be none of the government´s, or my, business. In fact, if we start treating each person as an individual for tax and "benefits" bestowed by the government none of this would matter to anyone.

I think we need to start ignoring government and all these divisive issues just like we ignore a child throwing a tantrum. Sooner or later they´ll just give up because no one´s paying attention to them.

The country has bigger fish to fry than worrying about what homosexuals are doing with one another. Perhaps it´s time to move on and let this leftist diversion go.

The cure for this type of garbage is easily available to each and everyone in this country. The problem is the vast majority of people, including those in the so called Patriot groups, refuse to take the cure. Until such time as Liberty lovers quit making excuses and seize control of the classrooms, city hall, the courts and last but not least State Legislatures, all your complaining is wasted bandwidth.
Remember this, DC is not a party to the Constitution, it is a creation of the Constitution, as such it has no say about what the Constitution means, it cannot Lawfully add to, take away from, or change the Lawfully delegated authority given to it. You delegate, it complies, that´s the TRUE LAW.

So, the social-conservative opposition had "an awkward side effect" of electing Democrats. We saw this awkward side effect on Nov 6th as well. Young people and many women are staying away from the GOP because its more homophobic segment.

I am happy that only 14% of Republican voters went for social-conservative Neil Di Carlo, but it was enough to throw the seat to a socialist. Was it worth it? Is the effort to keep marriage limited to heterosexuals worth having a Socialist like Obama in office? When the dollar collapses from the Socialists deficit spending, we can all look at our then worthless IRA´s and 401K´s and remember that many thought it was worth it.

These four RINOs have done more damage to New York than Sandy. Sandy´s damage can be repaired, destroying millenniums worth of human dignity in the sanctity of marriage can´t. Marriage isn´t a political institution. It is a procreation of the species successful strategy. But then again, homosexual copulation was never about the children, its about the hedonistic desires of adults.

It is another issue that the Democrats exploit. The social coercion that the left wing media conducts puts such pressure on one´s psyche to socially conform. It takes great strength of principles to not conform.

What numbers 11 and 12 said. Who cares who marries whom, it is between them and God. Lets worry about budgets, national defense, and the Constitution and let God sort out the social issues individually.

They [gay rights advocates] helped provide financial support for the New York senators;

That´s what happens when you sell your soul to the highest bidder and ignore the wishes of your constituents.

Cuomo and Bloomberg vowed to protect them?
And they BELIEVED that?
Oooops.

I must have read it wrong. I thought it said that 3 of the 4 Repubs who voted FOR "gay marriage" lost.

Grisanti (who turned his party affiliation from D-Rat into a RINO) campaigned for election in 2010 saying he´d vote against same-sex marriage, flip-flopped on the eve of the vote. He won re-election in 2012 due to redistricting in his favor.

#11, #12, this issue is not, and never was, about what two males or two females could do together "in their own bedrooms." Every conservative person I know says "That´s a matter of privacy. I´ll keep out of yours, you keep out of mine."

The issue is that legal pseudogamy is no longer private, because it leads by a short, fast route to a huge tangle of public issues, most related to the financial subsidy, and the forcible suppression of normal, traditional, and ethical disagreement.

That´s not something from my paranoid imagination. It´s already happening in every venue that has legalized this unfortunate parody of marriage.

Our decayed public culture can´t even affirm a child´s right to a mom and a dad. Legal pseudogamy opens all the avenues to the cultural penetration of our children with this troubling, disordered sexual ideology.

It´s also a question of democracy: we don´t want this. We don´t have to have it.

This is not a kumbaya, love, and fairness thing, this is an issue about condoning a degenerate sin that destroys the moral and social fabric of a nation. God is not mocked.

It´s not an ´awkward side effect´ to have Democrats replace these republicans. We understood what we were doing and think the state deserves what they voted for. Cuomo and Bloomberg can ´lament´ all they want. They haven´t lost anything, politically; they´ve gained 3 seats in the senate and they get to marry homosexuals and force the rest of us to live with it.

I am leaving this state as soon as my last two children are out of high school, God willing.

A culture that can´t defend marriage can´t defend anything.

This is about religious freedom. Once these relationships receive the country´s seal of approval, religious organizations will be sued for not going along. It is for that reason that so many are fighting this. It is all about protecting the first amendment.

The will keep on pushing forward. Soon it will be the right to have gay religious wedding in Catholic Churches. These will be eventually be closed down in the name of equality.

@#9: The Democrats eventually amke everyone a special interest group. They captured the black vote with welfare in 1965. They captured the gay vote with gay marriage, they captured the women`s vote with contraceptives and `women`s health issues` and they`re capturing the ignorant vote with free everything else. Meanwhile, the hapless GOP continue to twiddle their thumbs, tug on Superman`s cape and spit into the wind.

#14 has it right about social conservatives helping to elect socialist candidates, never worrying about the consequences. this is the problem with one issue voters, their emotionally driven much like children, cut off their nose to spite there face. I´m not trying to disparage people private views, but the demand the republican party be the anti sexual party goes against take government off my backs. The exception to this is pro life, as it´s really a life and death issue.

Another NYT article hyping the stereotype that Republican voters are all a bunch of homophobic bigots. In other news the sun is expected to rise in the east tomorrow.

Who cares, right? Well make way for ´close´ inner family marriages, polygamy and bestiality. Oh that´s crazy. Over the top. Could never happen. Gee, this sham ´marriage´ thing is OK, because they are harmless and again, who cares? Well I just read an article about some of our new immigrants from the militant Arab world. They have a tendency to marry first cousins and the resulting genetic defects are just part of that deal. Anyone want to guess if they will be ordered to stop that? If first cousins aren´t a big deal what about within the immediate biological family. Advocates like Singer and others are serious about arguing FOR it. The group marriage crowd already has a media presence, so accept them! I´m not ruling anything else out because we are in a world where anything and everything is justified and if you object, YOU are the problem.

Stupid Republicans. They never learn that to go against their base, they end up the loser. Good riddance. Boehner, you listening?