A number of Republican party-liners are trying to whip up a hue and cry over John Kerry’s mention of Dick Cheney’s daughter. Carl Limbacher ludicrously calls it “Kerry’s ‘Lesbian’ Attack.”
In Pennsylvania, Lynne Cheney called it “a cheap and tawdry political trick” and said Kerry “is not a good man.”
If you scan over the right-wing press, they’re using terms like ‘outed’ and ‘attack’ and other words like that.
They doth protest too much.
Not only is Mary Cheney not closeted, her professional life has been explicitly tied to her sexuality. She did outreach to the gay and lesbian communities when she worked at Coors.
It is a delicate issue — since it’s inherently personal and deals with one of the candidate’s children. But it was brought up in the context of a question about whether homosexuality is a choice. And more to the point: what’s the problem exactly unless you instinctively believe that homosexuality is something to be ashamed of?
If one of Cheney’s children was, God forbid, paraplegic and Kerry referred to him or her in the context of a question about people with disabilities, would there be a problem?
I suspect not.
From what some are saying, you’d think he brought up her criminal record, her problem with shoplifting, the unspeakable problem with pills.
