Boies told The New Yorker that the “powerful images” of gay couples flocking to San Francisco to tie the knot had helped move him to get involved in the case to overturn Proposition 8.

Like many pioneers who go first — from the “Ellen” sitcom to the Hillary drama — the mayor who staked his career on giving equal rights to gays may have to settle for paving the way. The lawyers get praised, but he got pilloried?

“Grand understatement,” he said dryly, noting that he still remembers press coverage from before the 2004 same-sex marriage eruption about shooting stars of the Democratic Party.

Read the rest of Maureen Dowd’s New York Times article here.