Romney tries to capitalize on gay marriage ruling

Mitt Romney, already leading the Republican pack in Iowa, is trying to make hay from the gay marriage issue bubbling up in the first caucus state.

After a judge on Thursday struck down Iowa's law banning same-sex marriage, Romney quickly condemned the ruling and renewed his call for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Already today, his campaign has issued statements with reports that he was the first candidate to react to the decision and that the National Review Online is calling gay marriage a "new front-burner issue" in Iowa.

In the wake of the ruling, the Associated Press reports, the first gay couple wed this morning in a ceremony officiated by a Des Moines minister.

Romney has quite a bit of history on this issue, having failed while governor to ban same-sex marriages in Massachusetts, the first state to allow them. Some have also questioned his consistency on the issue.