One of these things is not like the other one....

From an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the fight over Roberts' nomination:

Very few Democratic senators support same-sex marriage, and the public remains largely opposed to the idea. Activists are advising the Senate Democrats to address the issue indirectly under the rubric of a constitutional right to privacy.

Setting aside whether gay marriage is a good thing or not, does this strategy make any sense to you? Think about it: marriage is one of the core public acts a person makes during his or her lifetime. You stand up in a public forum, be it a clerk's office with only the clerk and a witness present, or a House of God, with 1,000 of your closet friends watching, and announce to the world that you are joining your life, 'til death or divorce do you part, to another. By this act, if you are a man marrying a woman, you also announce that the children she produces will be yours. You then turn around and announce to your employers and your government that you are now entitled to the various benefits that flow to married people. In all this, what's so private?