While waiting for Virginia...

The political world is waiting for the 2pm Warner announcement. As has been the case for the past few weeks, most people expect Warner to announce he is retiring, but the suspense is exquisite.

Other Senate news on this Friday morning comes from, surprise, surprise, Idaho, where Larry Craig is reported be close to resigning. The RNC is said to have almost published a press release last night calling for Craig's resignation but then chose to hold on when they heard Craig was already leaning towards that option. The fact that the existence of such a release was leaked, however, means that it might have well have been released.

In one of the other major developing stories of the week, Romney predictably wasted no time to blast the decision of the Iowa judge to legalize gay marriage. He issued the following statement:

"The ruling in Iowa today is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act. This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman."

Amazingly, marriage licenses were already issues this morning to gay couples! The Des Moines Register reports:

Two male college students this morning obtained a marriage license at the Polk County recorder’s office and got a judge to sign a waiver allowing them to marry today rather than wait three days, as is required by law. The couple are now searching for someone to perform the wedding ceremony... The couple — Tim McQuillan and Sean Fritz, both Iowa State University students — were among 12 same-sex couples who obtained marriage licenses before 9 a.m. this morning at the Polk County recorder’s office.

The last major political story of the morning is word that Fred Thompson is finally set to announce his candidacy... on September 6th. Not that his news at all, since everyone has known for months now that Thompson would enter the race. In fact, that Thompson was allowed to prepare for a run for all this time - even visit the Iowa State Fair! - without having to disclose his fundraising and financing documents to the FEC was a mockery of campaign finance laws.

Update from Iowa

The Des Moins Register seems to be following the college gay couple around town and updating their every move. And they just reported that the couple now has gotten married:

Two male college students were married in the front yard of a Des Moines residence this morning. They were married by the Rev. Mark Stringer of First Unitarian Church in Des Moines at 10:32 a.m. Before the ceremony, Stringer said, "Awesome. It's a long time coming."After the ceremony, he said, "They are now official. The marriage license is the official document."The couple is now headed to the Polk County Administration Building to file the marriage certificate.

New Update from Iowa

The news is rapidly shifting in the Iowa gay marriage story. The latest development: Judge Robert Hanson agreed to issue a stay on yesterday's ruling and block its implementation. This means that the ban on gay marriage will not be lifted before the appeal courts rules, which would obviously be a few months. So no more gay marriages in Iowa for now. It seems the two college students were the only ones who had time to get married this morning before the stay was issued. Whether this ruling means their marriage is still valid is still a question mark. Many other gay couples had obtained marriage licenses this morning. It appears that this stay will deprive them of a chance to actually use their license and get married.