Hollywood producer and director Rob Reiner who worked behind the scenes to finance the Federal court challenge to Proposition 8 is in San Francisco this week for the landmark case. Watch:

Once known as the “most trusted man in America,” former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite passed away this evening after a long illness at the age of 92.

Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title “anchorman” was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages. (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; In Holland, they are Cronkiters.)

“He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator,” CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.

In a career spanning more than half a century, Cronkite will perhaps be most remembered for his honest and human coverage of some of the most important news events in modern American history, including the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Apollo moon landing, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

Since this week is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, it seems appropriate to re-visit his coverage of that event.

And that’s the way it is. Rest in peace Mr. Cronkite.

The New York Times published an editorial today criticizing  Obama’s controversial defense brief for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which cited decisions involving incest and underage marriage to make it’s case. From the New York Times:

The brief insists it is reasonable for states to favor heterosexual marriages because they are the “traditional and universally recognized form of marriage.” In arguing that other states do not have to recognize same-sex marriages under the Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause, the Justice Department cites decades-old cases ruling that states do not have to recognize marriages between cousins or an uncle and a niece.

These are comparisons that understandably rankle many gay people. In a letter to President Obama on Monday, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, said, “I cannot overstate the pain that we feel as human beings and as families when we read an argument, presented in federal court, implying that our own marriages have no more constitutional standing than incestuous ones.”

…

If the administration does feel compelled to defend the act, it should do so in a less hurtful way. It could have crafted its legal arguments in general terms, as a simple description of where it believes the law now stands. There was no need to resort to specious arguments and inflammatory language to impugn same-sex marriage as an institution.

The best approach of all would have been to make clear, even as it defends the law in court, that it is fighting for gay rights. It should work to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the law that bans gay men and lesbians in the military from being open about their sexuality. It should push hard for a federal law banning employment discrimination. It should also work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act in Congress.

The controversy is definitely picking up steam, with coverage in the Wall Street Journal, CBS News and of course on the Rachel Maddow Show. Let’s hope Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is asked about it today.

New polls released by ABC and CBS have shown support for same-sex marriage growing.

From the ABC poll released today:

… Take gay marriage, legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut and now Iowa, with Vermont coming aboard in September. At its low, in 2004, just 32 percent of Americans favored gay marriage, with 62 percent opposed. Now 49 percent support it versus 46 percent opposed — the first time in ABC/Post polls that supporters have outnumbered opponents.

More than half, moreover — 53 percent — say gay marriages held legally in another state should be recognized as legal in their states.

Which is up from the from 42% from a CBS poll released 2 days ago.

Forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. That’s up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage.

Support for same sex marriage is now at its highest point since CBS News starting asking about it in 2004.

We’ve got the momentum folks. Perhaps the kick in the rear quarters known as Prop 8 was what this country needed to move forward on the marriage equality front.