Ted Olson, Gay Marriage's Unlikely Legal Warrior (As good an explanation as you will find)
Ted Olson's role as gay marriage advocate has raised eyebrows on both the right and the left.
On Monday, Olson will be in federal court representing those seeking to overturn California's ban on gay marriage, known as Proposition 8. The hearing could be the last stop before the case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A decade ago, Olson was a rock star in conservative legal circles after he represented George W. Bush in the famous Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore, and won.
A year later, on Sept. 11, 2001, as Olson sat in his office at the Justice Department, he would hear his wife Barbara's voice for the last time. She was calling on her cell phone from American Airlines Flight 77, just moments before her plane struck the Pentagon.
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Much more: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131792296/ted-olson-gay-marriage-s-unlikely-legal-warrior
He and David Boies have been an unlikely and formidable pair. They are in this for the long haul. Good on both of them and all involved.