Mary Cheney v. John Kerry

Sheldon Alberts reports:

In a memoir published Tuesday, the 37-year-old lesbian describes a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage as a “gross affront” to gay Americans and reveals she almost quit the Republican campaign after President George W. Bush’s endorsement of the legislation two years ago. But Cheney saves her harshest words for Bush’s 2004 opponents, calling Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry a “son of a bitch” and his running mate, John Edwards, a “total slime” for discussing her sexual orientation during nationally televised debates during the campaign. The 239-page autobiography has vaulted the publicity-shy political operative back into the Washington spotlight she’s already appeared in a prime-time interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and provoked mixed reviews from gay rights activists who are bracing for a Senate vote next month on the Republican-sponsored gay-marriage ban. “She is a little late to the party,” said John Aravosis, a Washington gay-rights activist and political blogger. “For the longest time, Mary wouldn’t speak. Now she gets a million-dollar book advance and suddenly she is speaking. It rings a little hollow.” Cheney became a flashpoint for both sides in America’s culture wars during the 2004 campaign after Bush endorsed the constitutional ban to shore up political support on the religious right. Cheney, who served as director of her father’s re-election campaign, stayed silent when Aravosis launched a controversial Internet campaign DearMary.com pleading with her to denounce Bush. She stayed silent when Kerry, during a debate with Bush, responded to a question on whether homosexuality was a choice by telling the nation Dick Cheney had a daughter “who is a lesbian.” And she bit her tongue when a Republican Senate candidate, Alan Keyes, accused her of “selfish hedonism” for living a homosexual lifestyle. But in her book, Cheney reveals she refused to attend Bush’s 2004 State of the Union address after reading a draft copy of the speech that spoke of the need to defend the sanctity of marriage. When Bush later endorsed a constitutional amendment to expressly forbid gay marriage, Cheney “seriously considered packing up my office and heading home” to the house she shared in Colorado with her longtime partner, Heather Poe. It “gave me a knot in the pit of my stomach to think of my candidate for president endorsing the federal marriage amendment,” she writes. The gay marriage ban “would write discrimination into the constitution, our nation’s most important and influential document,” Cheney says in the book. “It is fundamentally wrong and a gross affront to gays and lesbians everywhere.” In her interview with Diane Sawyer, Cheney said of Bush: “I think he’s a very good man On these issues, he hasn’t caught up.” Cheney is less generous to Kerry and Edwards, who she accuses of “sleazy” politics for mentioning she was gay during debates with Bush and her father. “John Kerry didn’t ‘out me’, nor did he offend or attack me by calling me a lesbian. It wasn’t a secret that I was gay, and I certainly couldn’t be offended by the truth,” she writes. “What was offensive E was that he was obviously trying to use me and my sexual orientation for his own political gain.” Sitting in the studio audience when Edwards mentioned her sexual orientation, Cheney said she looked at the vice-presidential candidate and mouthed the words”Go F*** Yourself” a phrase her father had earlier employed against Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy.

What did Senator Kerry say about Ms. Cheney? Oh yea, that she was one of God’s children. To which Ms. Cheney’s mother decided to help out Karl Rove’s slime machine with fake indignation.

Hey it’s great that Mary is speaking out for the rights of homosexuals NOW – but she supported Bush’s reelection in 2004. “Late to the party” indeed. But, let’s have Senator Kerry speak for himself:

Kerry spokesman David Wade said Mary Cheney had “flacked for the most anti-gay administration in history.” “Seems like a suspicious lecture from a political operative who flacked for the most anti-gay administration in history and allowed Karl Rove to divide America for political gain,” Wade said. “She’d be more credible if she pushed dad’s administration to support hate crimes legislation and equal rights for gay Americans.”

Or as Ms. Cheney’s dad might say: “go f*** yourself’”. Speaking of which, Dick Cheney mentioned his daughter’s sexuality during the 2000 Vice Presidential debate and we know he is truly a SOB. Mary Cheney – still a tool for the rightwing who want society and the government to treat homosexuals as third class citizens (if not worse).

But I should say something about economics, so let’s turn to Paul Krugman who notes that Dick Cheney is a Vulgar Keynesian:

First, on their face Mr. Cheney’s remarks were those of a vulgar Keynesian – a believer in the now- discredited doctrine that taxes and spending should be routinely twiddled in an attempt to “fine-tune” the economy.