A dozen years ago, the Christian Coalition was one of the most powerful and successful political organizations in the nation.

Founded by Pat Robertson in the wake of his more-successful-than-expected 1988 bid for the GOP presidential nomination, and midwifed to success by Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition was a critical element of the movement that helped Republicans recapture the House of Representatives in the 1994 mid-term elections, garnering the cover of TIME magazine in the process.

But in 1997, Reed left to open a consulting firm; his departure was followed in 2001 by that of Robertson himself.

Thank your lucky stars you're not Tory Mazzola this week.

Mazzola is the communications director for Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign.

That means it's been his job to advise Ensign on how best to acknowledge to the world that Ensign has broken the most important vow he ever made.

In political communications, there are few circumstances more demanding or more threatening.

Having been close to the center of one or two of those kinds of white-hot media frenzies, I can safely say it's not a thing you'd want even your worst enemy to go through.

Contrary to what some of the early conclusion-jumpers on the Right seem to think, yesterday's coup in the New York Senate had nothing to do with same-sex marriage, and everything to do with broken commitments and one very rich man's determination to enforce an agreement.

If you want to understand what really happened, begin by reading this piece by Steve Kornacki of PolitickerNY.com.

Then read this essay by B. Thomas Golisano, the billionaire philanthropist, three-time Independent Party nominee for governor, and recent New York tax exile.

Golisano, you see, is the man who hatched the coup.