Marrs and the T-D: Do we smell a Texas cage match?

This little war between the Times-Dispatch and former 68th District representative Bradley Marrs is getting fun to watch. Marrs' photo with the what-me-worry? grin has appeared two days in a row on the Editorial page -- yesterday in his own letter to the editor blasting the paper for its "sudden and stunning embrace of the political causes of homosexual activists" and its "pro-homosexual attack mentality" and again today, when the paper responded with its own lengthy editorial taking his charges on point by point and almost calling him a liar, saying his letters were "remarkable for distortions and omissions."

I don't particularly want to get into the issues themselves at this time. There will be plenty of time between now and the November referendum to debate the merits or faults of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Virginia. Right now, I simply find it interesting watching the conservative paper and the conservative sore loser duke it out. I guess it just goes to show you how great the divide is among social and religious conservatives and the more moderate wing. Funny, huh, that the Times-Dispatch would appear to fall into the latter category? How things have changed since the days when they would they would write editorials like the one in 1995 about Billie Jean King's visit to a local AIDS hospice? Can you imagine them writing something like that now?

While the paper's positions on gay issues remain solidly on the conservative side, there is definitely more moderation and tolerance there -- in both the position and the language. The paper supported former Gov. Mark Warner's ban on discrimination in state hiring, but questioned the appropriateness of burying it in his budget. Fair enough. Gone are the strident tones and wrath of God language. That now seems left to lawmakers and former lawmakers obsessed with sexuality, reproduction and even fertility treatments.