Last week the brilliant and witty James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal critiqued NOM and the Let The People Vote rallies as "deceptive advertising."

Our Chairman Maggie Gallagher responded -- and Taranto was kind enough to publish her response so his readers could hear from both sides:

The National Organization for Marriage is part of a coalition of groups working on this campaign. We are not naive enough to believe that we will get sitting legislators to change their views on same-sex marriage. Our objective is to replace those legislators with ones who will support putting the issue before New York voters. We are just beginning our organizational effort and already have rallied over 10,000 New Yorkers to attend events Sunday.

The question is whether the thousands of African American and Hispanic voters who attended (and those thousands more whom we will recruit) can help unseat Sens. Shirley Huntley, James Addabbo and Carl Kruger. That will be answered in the 2012 elections. Similarly, the 2012 elections will tell us whether the thousands of conservative and GOP members we're organizing can replace Sens. Mark Grisanti, James Alesi, Roy McDonald and Stephan Saland.

We also need to make changes in the makeup of the Assembly. Is it really difficult? Absolutely. Can it be done? The New Hampshire Legislature enacted same-sex marriage in 2009. Who would have predicted then that it would become such a big issue in the 2010 elections, where Republicans gained a supermajority in both houses? Now gay marriage may be repealed in New Hampshire next year.

To compare this Let the People Vote effort to the likelihood of repealing Roe v. Wade is seriously misplaced. 80% of New York voters want the right to vote on marriage, just as voters in 31 other states have been able to do. Some cultural elites said the abortion debate was over when the Roedecision came down, and it was time to move on. But people of faith did not rest, and now a majority in this country are pro-life. With marriage, 62% of Americans already support the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman, as do a majority of New Yorkers, and an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers want to be able to vote on the issue. Those numbers do not suggest it is time for surrender. Its time to come together and fight for the survival of marriage no matter the procedural obstacles we face. That's what we at NOM and our allies intend to do.