It always seemed an unlikely pairing. Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer who defended President George W. Bush to decide the 2000 presidential election, now championing marriage equality in California’s Proposition 8 case, paired with David Boies, his opponent in Bush v. Gore. But Olson has another unlikely partner — his wife, Lady Booth Olson, also a lifelong Democrat.
The Olsons are not the only famous cross-party spouses, of course. Other notables include California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and journalist Maria Shriver (D), and political consultants Mary Matalin (R) and James Carville (D). The New York Times had an article about the Olson’s this week, however, in which Mr. Olson explains the great extent to which his wife influenced his views on the Proposition 8 case.
Mrs. Olson told the paper, “He would have never been able to take the other side. He wouldn’t have had a wife after that!” She doesn’t take full credit, however, noting that her husband’s “fierce libertarian streak” inclines him to view all discrimination as offensive and to see marriage equality as a matter “of right and wrong, justice and injustice.”
Still, as the New York Times explains it, Mrs. Olson, a lawyer herself, was a significant presence behind the scenes on the case. And by simply speaking with the paper, she is continuing to extend her influence. She agreed to the interview so that people could see her and her husband as “happy heterosexuals who are completely supporting this,” and support it as well.
That’s the thing about marriage. Sometimes it is opposing traits that make a couple stand out — Republican/Democrat, Christian/Jew, Black/White, young/old, man/woman. Other times it is the similarities — a commitment to justice, a common interest, a shared heritage, a single gender. At its best, however, marriage can bring two people together in a bond based on something far deeper than the labels might imply. And spouses can inspire each other in ways neither might have predicted. It is a union that no one should be denied.
Whatever the final outcome of the Prop 8 case as it makes its way through the appeal process, Ted Olson, along with his Democratic co-counsel and backed by his Democratic wife, has shown that sometimes we must look beyond the labels to evaluate others as the individuals they are, and to find common ground in a set of shared values. That is a lesson that people of all orientations can take to heart.
Photo: L-R: David Boies, Ted Olson, Lady Booth Olson. Photo credit: Diana Walker
