The "L" Word

I'm no fan of Wolf Blitzer. There's something about him that looks like he's got a fine layer of frost on him and strikes me as profoundly creepy. I do, however, admire his way of twisting members of the Cheney clan's panties. The VP's recent "I'm gonna take my ball and go home" performance was truly enlightening.

Q We're out of time, but a couple of issues I want to raise with you. Your daughter Mary, she's pregnant. All of us are happy. She's going to have a baby. You're going to have another grandchild. Some of the -- some critics, though, are suggesting, for example, a statement from someone representing Focus on the Family:

"Mary Cheney's pregnancy raises the question of what's best for children. Just because it's possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father, doesn't mean it's best for the child."

Do you want to respond to that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I don't.

Q She's obviously a good daughter --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm delighted -- I'm delighted I'm about to have a sixth grandchild, Wolf, and obviously think the world of both of my daughters and all of my grandchildren. And I think, frankly, you're out of line with that question.

Q I think all of us appreciate --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think you're out of -- I think you're out of line with that question.

Q -- your daughter. We like your daughters. Believe me, I'm very, very sympathetic to Liz and to Mary. I like them both. That was just a question that's come up and it's a responsible, fair question.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I just fundamentally disagree with your perspective.

This is systemic behavior from them when their daughter Mary is mentioned. More pointedly, when Mary's lesbianism is mentioned. They take offense at anyone who references the fact. Well, they take offense at anyone who's not a Republican who references it. Can they not make some sort of statement (no matter how lukewarm and boilerplate it might be) that shows just how integral a part of their family and political lives she is? Before last year's mid-term elections, there was a lot made in the blogs about Bush and Cheney's private non-official tolerance toward gays and lesbians. It seems to me that they're unwilling, or perhaps unable, to address the contradictory natures of their own lives.

They've fronted a political machine that's demonized gays and lesbians, courting the evangelicals and conservatives while never making any sort of principled stand. What I'm curious about is why Cheney thinks this question is out of line? Their party has made this a question worth pursuing, a debate worth having. Would they be so quick to dismiss it if it was a prominent Democratic lesbian opting to have a child with her partner?

Consider the call by Rev. Don Wildmon to purge DC of gay staffers, a demand that went unaddressed.

Or maybe this little gem from James Dobson, in Time magazine (a bile-raising little screed called "Two Mommies is One Too Many")

We should not enter into yet another untested and far-reaching social experiment, this one driven by the desires of same-sex couples to bear and raise children. The traditional family, supported by more than 5,000 years of human experience, is still the foundation on which the well-being of future generations depends.

Their silence, their petulance, their pandering is nothing short of despicable.