Gay marriage is so radioactive to far-right Republicans that it may end up burning Chris Christie, despite the political duck-and-cover offered by his referendum proposal.
Consider the pushback against the governor's nomination of gay, black, Republican attorney Bruce Harris to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Christie announced the Harris pick (as well as that of not-gay Phillip Kwon) last Monday, the day before the governor blithely upstaged the "we-love-gay-people pageant" -- otherwise known as the N.J. Senate hearing on same-sex marriage -- by calling for a referendum on the issue.
Christie's shrewd counterpunch to the Democrats' carefully timed/politically calculated re-embrace of marriage equality certainly looked less overtly negative toward gays in light of the governor's newsmaking nomination.
But a 2009 email in which Harris advocates same-sex marriage proves he would be an "activist judge," the Conservative New Jersey website insists.
"It is deeply disturbing that a man nominated to the New Jersey State Supreme Court would so callously disregard the rule of law for his own personal benefit," CNJ says.
Ever-alert to the slightest suggestion of deviation from ideological purity, the site also blasts Christie as a "RINO" (Republican in Name Only).