It will be interesting to see whom Massachusetts voters elect in Romney's place.

Massachusetts has already picked Romney's replacement. By a wide margin, Deval Patrick, a Democrat and social liberal, was elected the commonwealth's next governor on Nov. 7.

Romney was an uninvolved carpetbagger whose ambitions for national office were always his priority, and whose positions on social issues have hardened to the right as he followed the Rovian model. Goodbye and good riddance.

Sarah Goldstein wrote:

" It will be interesting to see whom Massachusetts voters elect in Romney's place."

Interesting indeed. Especially for Massachusetts voters who think they already elected Deval Patrick earlier this month. But maybe Sarah knows better and they are mistaken.

Deval Patrick, the first African-American elected as the Governor of any state was elected this past November 6 in Mass. as a supporter of marriage equality. Mitt Romney and his bigotry are history!

Regarding the Israeli decision, any expansion of human rights should be praised. One would hope that they might consider improving their dismal human rights record toward the Palestinians.

Regarding Mitt Romney, consider this. If no one had told a conservative Bostonian that those 8,000 couples got married, that conservative's life would be no different. He or she wouldn't know the difference. He or she would probably still complain about high taxes, but they wouldn't be any different than before. Life would go on pretty much the same as before. They could still go on believing homosexuality is a sin and all that, and no law would prevent them from thinking that. The only difference would be that those 8,000 couple would have the chance to a fulfilling life.

So it's simply gay-panic. Two women decide to get married, and then conservatives want to call 911 to get the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to stop!!...to stop this dangerous event from taking place!! Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for a tolerant Episcopalian minister performing nuptials for homosexuals!!!

George W Bush: "Mitt, you did a fabulous job."

and looked around they would realize a good part of the First World has moved on and has more advanced thinking about many such issues than us backwards brutes.

It is only because of a near shutout of foreign news and information into the USA that most people still think of this as the most advanced nation.

Maybe if the Palestinians stopped sending rockets into Israel...

Oh, I forgot - NO ONE cares if Jews die!

I may have missed something, but didn't the citizenry of Massachusetts already pick someone to replace Romney? According to the Boston Globe from 11/8/06, Deval Patrick was elected by a 20 point margin as governor of Massachusetts. So, why the concern about continuing the trend of social conservatives?

Marriage rights for gays in Massachusetts are a great deal more stable than this post implies. One of the leading articles on Bay Windows is about how barring very extreme circumstances, marriage rights are secure (www.baywindows.com). Scaring people should never take the place of due vigilance.

And yes, as others have said, the MA elections were a resounding "thumbs down" not only on Romney's successor, but for right-wingers in general. Did no one think to check the news sources before posting this blog entry?

It will be interesting to see whom Massachusetts voters elect in Romney's place. Will the traditionally liberal state pick another social conservative, or will it decide that protecting heteronormative vows just isn't as important as, say, universal healthcare or affordable higher education?

Seriously? We just elected Deval Patrick, as others have noted above -- I don't need to reiterate the event, even though it is historic. But also a quick Wiki search would have netted you Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 of the Massachusetts Legislature (effective July 1, 2007) creating a mandatory health insurance program for all residents of the Commonwealth. Although far from perfect, the aim of the new law is to provide health insurance within three years for 95% of the state's half a million uninsured residents (many of them who make too much money for our MassHeath system, but not enough to afford regular health insurance).

Coming from New England I understand provincialism, but come on! Research? Ever heard of it?

Deval Patrick, a Democrat and unequivocal supporter of same-sex marriage was elected in a landslide over Romney's Lt. Governor. He will be our new governor in January, the first African American Governor since Douglas Wilder was Governor of Virginia in the 90s. With every election more and more opponents (or lukewarm "supporters" like our Attorney General Tom Reilly, who lost to Patrick in the Democratic Primary) of same-sex marriage are defeated. Leaders of both the Massachusetts House and Senate are same-sex marriage supporters--which is why both houses voted to adjourn. The 170,000 signatures you mention on the petition against same-sex marriage were largely the result of fraud. You can find out the details at http://knowthyneighbor.org. Experts quoted in local papers seem to agree that Romney doesn't have a legal leg to stand on in forcing a vote, and all he's doing is pandering to right wing voters in the vain hope that his presidential campaign will last past the New Hampshire primary. Please do some research next time.

When was this article written, the election was two weeks ago, in Mass. Patrick the Democrat won. in the Govenor's race. Duh

Not only did the electorate pick Patrick, the most pro-gay marriage candidate, in the democratic primary, but we elected him governor by a huge margin.

We also tossed out quite a few anti-marriage legislators and replaced them with pro-gay rights legislators. And all the polls show strong support for continuing marriage rights.

This issue is over.

Romney himself is one of the most repugnant politicians I've ever seen. He ran as a pro-choice, pro-gay liberal republican. Once elected, he dumped the commonwealth's fiscal problems on our towns and cities, forcing them to make the hard choices on programs and taxes, then hopped on a plane to travel the country badmouthing our state.