conference board reports consumer confidence has fallen eight point this month. and the s&p case-shiller home price index reports the biggest annual increase in home prices. meantime, in 6 1/2 years. that's it from cnbc. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." culture wedges have long been used by republicans as we know as wedges to divide democrats. in 2004, for instance, republicans placed a gay marriage ban on the ballot in ohio as i said to help get the conservative vote out and it worked. president bush won ohio by two points. as a result, he won that election in 2000. but now, he won it after the supreme court helped him. now it's the democrats' turn to use wedges, actually, 2004. wedges issues against republicans. politico reports today "the culture wars are back but this time with a significant twist. the left is picking the fights and for the most part enjoying