It's Time for Democrats to Dump Overcooked Weiner

With President Obama suggesting New York Rep. Anthony Weiner resign, Democrats have fired their last and biggest rhetorical gun. Because Weiner still hasn't budged, they need to take action by booting him from committees and their caucus.

Weiner's rehab dodge is a bid to buy time in hopes that tempers will cool and he'll be able to survive. He needs the salary, and those who know him say he can't imagine life without being in Congress.

If so, he's not likely to go without being forced. A vote to expel him is justified and would clear any doubt about the end game.

It would also force his cowardly New York colleagues to come out of hiding and take a stand.

Watching them squirm over having to choose between their country and Weiner would be an added benefit.

New York is Overdue to Say 'I Do' to Gay Marriage

With Albany moving toward a vote on gay marriage, there is an obvious and easy argument in favor: time. In less than a generation, a topic with narrow backing has earned solid majority support and deserves to become the law of New York.

It is a remarkable development. A mere three years ago, liberals like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama navigated the issue during the presidential campaign by declaring support for civil unions.

That seemed a smart compromise at the time, but already, it looks like an out-of-date waffle. So, too, does Obama's push to allow gays to serve openly in the military while opposing gay marriage. Such is the unsmooth evolution of an idea.

My own concerns about tradition have been overtaken by the blunt simplicity of the proposition, as well as a growing distrust of government. If two consenting adults in love want to commit to each other legally, why should bureaucrats be allowed to stop them? They shouldn't be, with some common-sense exceptions, such as incest and diminished mental capacity.

The sum total of human liberty grows any time a single individual enjoys expanded freedom. So much the better when rights grow through popular consensus, as is likely with bipartisan legislative approval in Albany, rather than through activist judges.

The same principle, by the way, demands that religious institutions not be forced to perform marriages they don't sanction. Their liberties, too, must be protected.

Not long ago, skeptics could duck the issue of gay marriage with the quip that gays have suffered enough. Apparently, they haven't! And so their time has come to experience the pleasure of matrimony.

Literature, LA-style

Some stereotypes are deserved. The largest home in Los Angeles, a mansion that sold for about $150 million, was built by the late TV producer Aaron Spelling. It contains a library where the "books" are bound scripts of his shows such as "Charlie's Angels," "The Love Boat" and "Dynasty." In other words, the classics of Hollywood.

Click to Read Michael Goodwin's Complete Column from NYPost.com