The California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage last week.

But the biggest news on this issue appeared to be its resulting in talk show host Ellen DeGeneres announcing that her and Portia de Rossi were engaged.

Congratulations to the couple, by the way.

But does the lack of mainstream attention to such a seemingly landmark ruling suggest that same-sex marriage has run its course as a political wedge issue.

Pollsters are cautioning that this ridiculous issue may still return to center stage in the general election this fall.

“There is no reason to think [gay marriage] should be less potent of an issue in 2008 than in 2004,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, told Politico.

“It is an issue that could cause further problems with those voters [with] whom Barack Obama is already having trouble — white working-class voters.”

Previously, the November 2003 Massachusetts high court ruling legalizing gay marriage crystallized that issue as a divisive focal point for Republicans.

By February, 2004 - after San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples - President Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment to ban it. Thankfully, that proposal didn’t gain much momentum.

But issue was used to perfection to drum up votes for the socially conservative agenda. Many on that side of the aisle hope it works that way again.

Just yesterday, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins hosted a panel in Washington on “the national implications of the [California] ruling and on the plans to repel this assault on marriage and the family.

Some Washington analysts believe gay marriage has dulled as a wedge issue; after all, how can there not be a subdued public response to the May 15 California ruling in light of rising worries about simply filling one’s gas tank?

Others say that the current political landscape has altered the issue environment.

“The difference this time is also that the Republicans are on the defensive, so wedge issues work less,” pollster John Zogby said.

Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, said there may be a public “exhaustion” with the debate over gay marriage.

Let’s hope so, everyone. Let’s really, really hope so.