Nobles and knaves

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Nobles: The California Supreme Court, for an un-common, un-Californian dose of constitutional sense on homosexual "marriage."

The value fault lines between coastal liberals and the rest of the nation have become so deep that the occasional cultural earthquake is not surprising. Earlier this year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom shocked the nation by deciding that California's law requiring marriage to be between "a man and a woman" was unconstitutional.

The self-styled suzerain then proceeded to order the issuing of about 4,000 gender-neutral marriage licenses, the legality of which was eventually challenged before the state Supreme Court. Shockingly, the court found against Mr. Newsom. On Thursday, it unanimously ruled that Mr. Newsom's actions were "unauthorized and unlawful" and by a 5 to 2 vote declared that the marriage licenses subsequently issued were null and void.

As the court declared: "The legal question at issue . . . involves the determination of a fundamental question that lies at the heart of our political system: the role of the rule of law in a society that justly prides itself on being 'a government of laws, and not of men.' "

Thanks to the high court, the rule of law will rule California for at least one more week. For its well-grounded ruling, the California Supreme Court is the Noble of the week.

Knaves: N.J. Gov. James McGreevey, for heralding his gayness to hide his crookedness.

There is a great deal wrong with the way in which Mr. McGreevey has used his homosexuality as a cover for his corruption.

In his declaration and resignation speech on Thursday, Mr. McGreevey acknowledged: "It makes little difference that as governor I am gay." So why will he resign? Mr. McGreevey was apparently on the verge of being outed through a sexual harassment case by ex-lover Golan Cipel. After they met in 2000, the governor appointed Mr. Cipel to the $110,000-a-year post of homeland security advisor without either a background check or an official announcement. The former poet and sailor was so unqualified for the critical post that he could not get a security clearance. In his resignation speech, Mr. McGreevey made no mention of that appointment, nor of the peril that he put his constituents in by doing so.

Like his deed of self-outing, Mr. McGreevey's Nov. 15 date of resignation also speaks to a crass calculation. By resigning on that day, Mr. McGreevey will ensure that another Democrat, Senate President Richard Codey, will become governor, instead of giving the citizens of New Jersey a chance to pick their own governor for the next two years.

Mr. McGreevey is not a victim. His sexuality can in no way excuse his violations of his sacred trusts as governor.

For putting a victim's spin on his political sins, Mr. McGreevey is the Knave of the week.