Kudos to the San Jose Mercury news for liveblogging the extraordinary Prop. 8 trial, in which the Reaganite former Solicitor General Ted Olson has teamed up with gay rights activists to strike down California’s ban on gay marriage. The Supreme Court just decided to outlaw a broadcast of the trial, so I’m glad that Howard Mintz is on the inside.

There’s plenty of good stuff there for legal geeks and equality hawks, but I was particularly drawn to this buffoonish cross-examination from Day 5 of the trial, after a sociologist named Michael Lamb testified that homosexuals are just as good at parenting as heterosexuals:

The cross-examination of Michael Lamb, the plaintiffs expert, began with the revelation (gasp!) that he’s a liberal. Proposition 8 lawyer David Thompson opened up his questioning of Lamb by asking him whether he’s a member of the ACLU, NOW, NAACP and Amnesty International. (He is.) Then Thompson really hit hard. “You’ve even given money to PBS, is that correct?” the lawyer asked, prompting a burst of laughter in the courtroom. (Lamb did give to PBS, and acknowledged he’s liberal.) Lamb also conceded he advocates same-sex marriage.

So this is what it has come to? In Massachusetts, a man is elected to the Senate because he drives a pickup truck, and the state of California tries to discredit scientific data by asking a witness if he contributes to PBS.

Progressives, I think y’all need to get aggressive.