What Kerry DIDN'T Call Her
Did anyone else notice what is significant by its absence in the following Kerry quote?
Do you give up?
It is the name of the Cheney daughter, Mary Cheney, who is (and has been for years) an "out" lesbian. Kerry was so intent upon using her for her own nefarious political purposes that he was unwilling to call her by name. To have done so would have required him (and the audience) to focus on her as a human being, not as a sexual orientation. It is therefore clear that the comment had nothing to do with a desire to make life better for Mary (a staffer on the Bush/Cheney campaign, by the way), but was instead simply a tool. He gave no respect, and in response deserves only contempt.
Imagine if the question had instead been about the War on Drugs, and Kerry had said this instead.
We all know there would have been hell to pay. It would have been cold, heartless and manipulative to air someone's family laundry. And to refuse to show the basic respect implicit in using her name would be seen as outrageous.
I won't even get into Elizabeth Edwards' reprehensible attack on Lynne Cheney. I guess it is true that bad breeding will show at awkward moments. I'll be voting to take out the trash on November 2.
UPDATE: A friend emailed me regarding the initial reference to Mary Cheney's sexual orientation during the Vice Presidential Debate. He said that he didn't think Edwards mentioned her name, either. Sure enough, when I checked out the transcript here's what I found.
So that makes twice that Kerry and Edwards have indecently used Mary Cheney's sexual orientation for campaign purposes without even having the decency to use her name.
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.
Do you give up?
It is the name of the Cheney daughter, Mary Cheney, who is (and has been for years) an "out" lesbian. Kerry was so intent upon using her for her own nefarious political purposes that he was unwilling to call her by name. To have done so would have required him (and the audience) to focus on her as a human being, not as a sexual orientation. It is therefore clear that the comment had nothing to do with a desire to make life better for Mary (a staffer on the Bush/Cheney campaign, by the way), but was instead simply a tool. He gave no respect, and in response deserves only contempt.
Imagine if the question had instead been about the War on Drugs, and Kerry had said this instead.
And I think if you were to talk to your brother Jeb's daughter, who is a drug addict, she would tell you that . . . .
We all know there would have been hell to pay. It would have been cold, heartless and manipulative to air someone's family laundry. And to refuse to show the basic respect implicit in using her name would be seen as outrageous.
I won't even get into Elizabeth Edwards' reprehensible attack on Lynne Cheney. I guess it is true that bad breeding will show at awkward moments. I'll be voting to take out the trash on November 2.
UPDATE: A friend emailed me regarding the initial reference to Mary Cheney's sexual orientation during the Vice Presidential Debate. He said that he didn't think Edwards mentioned her name, either. Sure enough, when I checked out the transcript here's what I found.
Now, as to this question, let me say first that I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her.
So that makes twice that Kerry and Edwards have indecently used Mary Cheney's sexual orientation for campaign purposes without even having the decency to use her name.
posted by Greg at
10/14/2004 11:04:00 PM
