Brian Williams asked President Obama whether gays and lesbians who wish to marry have "a friend in teh White House." Obama seemed delighted to get the question:

First, Obama makes it clear that gays and lesbians who wish to marry do not have a friend in the White House, only gays and lesbians who wish to, um, unionize have a friend in the White House. But we knew that when we wrote checks and voted for him—and civil unions wouldn't be the separate-but-equal fallback position for nervous Democrats if gays and lesbians weren't pressing for—and winning—the right to marry. But here's the most important thing the president had to say:

"I don't think that it makes sense for the federal government to get in the business of determining what marriage is. That isn't traditionally the federal government's role."

Agreed. But the federal government is in the marriage business currently: the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) determines what marriage is and what it isn't and President Obama promised during the campaign that he would press Congress to repeal DOMA. Scrapping DOMA would shift the "marriage business" back to the states. Until we see some action from the White House and Congress on repealing DOMA then we can only conclude that our "friends" in Washington take our friendship—and our checks and our votes—for granted.