Discord in Concord

As a follow-up to New Hampshire's marriage commission spitting on the electorate, Concord Monitor columnist Katy Burns makes us look subtle.

In her thoughts on Senator Jack Barnes' preventing any discussion of the issues, she includes:

Why bother with actually thinking about this stuff, opined Barnes, when you can just recommend a constitutional amendment against gay marriage as a cure-all? And willy-nilly, that's just what a commission majority -"idiots," was Rep. Stretch Kennedy's delicate term for them - did this week.

Barnes, the prime mover behind the sudden call for an amendment, was cynically candid in a Union Leader interview about his motivation. "It is important . . . to get the issue moving," he said, so that the people of New Hampshire "will know how their senators and representatives have voted . . . before elections next fall." In other words, let's turn a non-issue into something that can be used to bash legislators who might be reluctant to use the state constitution as a vehicle for petty discrimination.

And there is more. Top to bottom, it is a good read. We suspect this theme will reappear and haunt the high-handed senator. Happy Halloween, Jack.