After “I’m rubber, you’re glue” Kerry turns to “He started it!”

From the NY Times account of the Dem debate last night:

Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, attacked Mr. Bush for raising the issue [of gay marriage] in the first place.

Can we call this a lie? Sure, why not. And it’s one that Charles Krauthammer disposes of in today’s WashPost:

Who is dividing the country? Was it the Republican National Committee that told the Massachusetts court to make May 17, the midst of a hotly contested election year, the day on which gay marriage is to be imposed for the first time in America?

A front-page Post "analysis" piece asserts that with the constitutional amendment the president is ready "to rekindle the culture wars." Who did the kindling here? It was the mayor of San Francisco, who, in violation of California law and in the middle of the 2004 election campaign, issued the first same-sex marriage licenses in American history.

Bush had no desire to get involved in this issue. If not for the activism in Boston and San Francisco, it would not be an election issue at all. Boston and San Francisco have made the question very stark: We are going to have national gay marriage or we are not.

We didn’t start the fire.