"This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page, more than just cutting and spending. It's about the kind of future we want. It's about the kind of country we believe in."

That's from the very first paragraph of Barack Obama's big deficit-cutting speech today. If you spent time watching last year's Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign, it probably struck you as rather familiar.

Updated below

Major, long-awaited development in the same-sex marriage wars today, as the Department of Justice cuts loose from defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

From the press release:

The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional.

Back in the early days of the Barack Obama presidency, when speculation was rampant that Deval Patrick would head to Washington for a post, a well-informed insider type speculated to me that Patrick could be named US Ambassador to China. Didn't happen -- it went to (Republican) Jon Huntsman of Utah. Well, Huntsman just resigned, supposedly to launch a Presidential bid.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I look at a new movement that might, finally, make real criminal-justice reform politically feasible. That movement is coming from die-hard movement conservatives.

Sure, Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, and the Concerned Women for America are coming at the issue from a different perspective than the generally liberal long-time advocates.

It turns out, you can be pretty snarky in 140 characters. I've been on Twitter for a couple of years now (follow me at twitter.com/dbernstein), and use it for a variety of purposes: breaking bits of political news; passing along news or commentary of interest; linking to my articles and blog posts; offering brief observations and commentary; interacting with readers and political junkies; and of course, cracking humorous one-liners.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I look at the Big 3 of President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

At the end of one of the most productive legislative sessions in years, all three are under fire, and all three have a lot at stake in the upcoming midterm elections.

Let me start by saying, as I often do, that Massachusetts remains ahead of the San Francisco Bay area as a liberal icon for the disdain of conservatives, and those jealous left coasters are desparately trying to regain some cred by getting their gay marriages back.

Anyway... Yesterday's ruling overturning the "Prop 8" ban on same-sex marriage made me think of a conversation I had with a leader of a religious anti-gay organization in the South, right after the Goodrich ruling in Massachusetts in November 2004.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I write about the rough seas ahead for President Obama.

Just three months ago, the future looked considerably brighter for him; but now the disappointing economic recovery, the return of public attention to Afghanistan, and of course the oil spill threaten to make the coming months as problematic as the ones behind him.

Odds are pretty good that today's health care summit will produce a Joe Wilson-esque "You Lie!" moment -- some crazy-ass comment or rude outburst that zooms around the blogosphere, leads off Olbermann, and raises a million dollars in 24 hours for the Republican who says it. But who will be the headline-grabber this time? I say Joe Barton; below I rank the GOP attendees in order of likelihood.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that eight GOP Senators, including himself, will attend Barack Obama's big "health care summit" on Thursday. They are: Mitch, Jon, Lamar, John, Chuck, Mike, Tom, and John.

Back during the Sotomayor confirmation, I wrote that the GOP's glaring lack of elected female officeholders becomes especially glaring when the party is trying to oppose a woman or a women's issue.

It came down to a 6th-ballot choice between a black guy (Michael Steele) and a guy who until a few months ago belonged to a whites-only club (Katon Dawson), and the Republican National Committee members narrowly picked the black guy, 91-77.

For me, there's a symmetry to this. In 2004, the Republicans held their convention in New York, shortly after Illinois state senator Barack Obama stole the show in Boston with his keynote speech.