Truespeak

The feigned outrage of the Republican party over John Kerry's remarks about Vice President Cheney's daughter during the third and final debate is laughable at best. To be clear, this is the exchange in question:

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President, let's get back to economic issues. But let's shift to some other questions here.

Both of you are opposed to gay marriage. But to understand how you have come to that conclusion, I want to ask you a more basic question.

Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?

BUSH: You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know. I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It's important that we do that.

And I also know in a free society people, consenting adults can live the way they want to live.

And that's to be honored.

But as we respect someone's rights, and as we profess tolerance, we shouldn't change -- or have to change -- our basic views on the sanctity of marriage.

I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I think it's very important that we protect marriage as an institution, between a man and a woman.

I proposed a constitutional amendment. The reason I did so was because I was worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage, and the surest way to protect marriage between a man and woman is to amend the Constitution.

It has also the benefit of allowing citizens to participate in the process. After all, when you amend the Constitution, state legislatures must participate in the ratification of the Constitution.

I'm deeply concerned that judges are making those decisions and not the citizenry of the United States. You know, Congress passed a law called DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act.

My opponent was against it. It basically protected states from the action of one state to another. It also defined marriage as between a man and woman.

But I'm concerned that that will get overturned. And if it gets overturned, then we'll end up with marriage being defined by courts, and I don't think that's in our nation's interests.

SCHIEFFER: Sen. Kerry?

KERRY: We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.

I think if you talk to anybody, it's not choice. I've met people who struggled with this for years, people who were in a marriage because they were living a sort of convention, and they struggled with it.

And I've met wives who are supportive of their husbands or vice versa when they finally sort of broke out and allowed themselves to live who they were, who they felt God had made them.

I think we have to respect that.

The president and I share the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe that. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

But I also believe that because we are the United States of America, we're a country with a great, unbelievable Constitution, with rights that we afford people, that you can't discriminate in the workplace. You can't discriminate in the rights that you afford people.

You can't disallow someone the right to visit their partner in a hospital. You have to allow people to transfer property, which is why I'm for partnership rights and so forth.

Now, with respect to DOMA and the marriage laws, the states have always been able to manage those laws. And they're proving today, every state, that they can manage them adequately.

I fail to see anything that should cause offense in this statement. Had the question been about education, would we be seeing the same outrage if John Kerry had used Jenna Bush as an example? After all, she's planning to be a teacher. The answer is, no we wouldn't. The crux of the issue here is that John Kerry pointed out that Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian, something Cheney himself has done many times on the campaign trail, and the Republicans don't want their religio-crazy base to be reminded of that. Had Kerry done something truly offensive like call her a dyke during the debate, I could understand the anger, but he didn't do that. He called her what she is, a lesbian.

A little over six weeks ago, Illinois Senate Candidate Alan Keyes made some truly troubling comments concerning the Vice President's daughter when he said that she was a sinner practicing "selfish hedonism."

After saying homosexuality is "selfish hedonism," Keyes was asked if that made Mary Cheney "a selfish hedonist."

"Of course she is," Keyes replied. "That goes by definition."

Certainly the Vice President and his family were upset about these comments, but I don't recall hearing about it on the nightly news three days later. Where was all of the outrage then? Where was Lynne Cheney saying that Alan Keyes was "not a good man?" Where was snarling Dick saying that he was an "angry father?" The fact of the matter is, being upset at Keyes for some truly disparraging remarks didn't have the same political value as being upset at Kerry for some open and honest comments. When it can benefit them politically, anything is fair game to the Republicans including the sexual preference and reputation of a family member.

Last night on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, Rep. Jim Rogan (R-CA) claimed that the Kerry campaign was using Mary Cheney as a political football. He qualified this remark by saying that John Edwards had brought up her up in the VP debate and now Kerry in the last Presidential debate. As I recall, Dick Cheney said thank you to John Edwards for his statement about Mary Cheney, so I don't see an issue there; and John Kerry was citing her as a person the President is familiar with who disagrees with his point of view. Once again, I don't see where the outrage is coming from.

Obviously, this is a diversion. The Bush campaign is hoping to divert attention from the President's poor performance in the debates. They are trying to create a stir about Kerry's comments so the media won't report that Kerry swept all three debates, Iraq is falling into chaos, allies are leaving the coalition, the economy and the job market are going in the tank, the deficit is growing, and the President has absolutely no plan to fix any of this. If anyone is using Mary Cheney as a political football, it's the Bush/Cheney campaign. Cheney can use her to say that he has a gay daughter and therefore he doesn't support a constitutional ammendment banning gay marriage, while the President continues to come out in support of it to keep the evangelicals content and on his side. They're using her to play both sides of the issue. I hope they look back on this and are ashamed of the way they've used her private life for their own political gain.

Funniest part of this whole story is that I haven't heard a single word from Mary Cheney. Apparently she's too distraught over being a political football.