The defense witnesses that Protect Marriage called during Perry v. Schwarzenegger were, in a word, terrible. How’d Ted Olson and David Boies get ’em to embarrass themselves?
Many of the witnesses lead defense attorney Charles Cooper planned to call never took the stand. And those that did were a disgrace. Kenneth Miller, on the stand, acknowledged DOMA is discriminatory. David Blankenhorn got up there and said gay marriage is a good thing for America.
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Boies calls the gaffes “almost predictable.”
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B
While Andrew Pugno (the “yes on eight” attorney) may have been embarrassed, I don’t think David Blankenhorn was given his op-ed piece (Feb 21, 2009) in the New York Times co-authored with Jonathan Rauch. You can find the op-ed piece at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22rauch.html (you may not agree with him, but he did recognize that gays and lesbians have legitimate reasons for wanting same-sex marriage and that predated the trial by over a year).
The witness who really embarrassed himself was William Tam, but he was just comic relief and proof of animus – Tam didn’t have anything substantive to say and Boises ignored Tam in the interview. Blankenhorn wasn’t exactly a “disgrace” as QUEERTY put it because he ended up telling the truth, much to the embarrassment of Pugno et al.
Lanjier
Great interview, great American.
CJ
Too bad that Boies wasn’t the moderator at the Democratic debates 2 years ago. Maybe we could have “torn apart” their near unanimous statements on why they believe marriage should remain between a man and a woman vs. full marriage equality.
Aaron in Honolulu
That was nice to hear. I too wished they videotaped the trial.