When it comes to scoring political points off of homosexuality, it's hard to beat the Republican Party. The president lined up behind a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage at the beginning of his 2004 reelection run, and now Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is trotting it out all over again, just in time for the 2006 elections.
That doesn't sit well with Dick Cheney's gay daughter. In her soon-to-be-published book, Mary Cheney says that she skipped the president's 2004 State of the Union address after she learned that he'd speak of the need to defend the "sanctity" of marriage, and she says she actually thought about bailing out of her job on the Bush-Cheney campaign as a result. Still, Cheney insists that her father -- who supported states' rights on gay marriage before he opposed them -- is a "very good man" who just hasn't caught up on the issue.
We're all for loving thy father, so we'd be inclined to cut Mary a little slack here -- if only she could find it in her heart to show a little love for those who oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment she calls a "gross affront to gay Americans." But she doesn't. We thought John Kerry made a major tactical error when he mentioned Cheney's sexual orientation during his final presidential debate in 2004, but Cheney doesn't stop there. She calls Kerry a "son of a bitch" and says his statement was "offensive" because he was "obviously trying to use me and my sexual orientation for his own political gain."
And John Edwards? Kerry's running mate mentioned Cheney's sexual orientation in his own debate with her father. Cheney says she responded by looking right at Edwards and mouthing some words with which her dad is familiar: "Go fuck yourself."
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