Burnt Orange Report

Big loser as an issue for Kerry, so I'm glad to see you kids playing it up. Besides, where's your outrage for Kerry refusing to stand up more strongly for the gays?

Very surprising that everybody on the left is suddenly such experts on what Lynne Cheney feels for her daughter.

I thought Kerry's response was fine. Is he perfect on glbt issues? Of course not. But is he right on about 95% of the issues and is he the the most pro-glbt major party nominee in U.S. history? Absolutely. In 2004, that's good enough for me.

What part of "during the debates" didn't you understand?

And if you want to talk about John Kerry's *record* don't get me started!

Boi From Troy is right, at least on one point: mentions of Mary Cheney specifically are intended to undercut Bush's support among anti-gay voters.

Why that bothers them, I can only guess. It's not because Kerry's mentioning Cheney's sexuality to hurt Bush; Bush built his campaign on anti-gay bigotry, and unlike Kerry, he's being exploiting it to forward an explicitly anti-gay agenda. They're fine with that.

More likely, it's because it's causing them to lose votes, even if they are the votes of anti-gay bigots. They were counting on those, apparently.

Honestly, if in 1948, Harry Truman had mentioned that he was glad that Strom Thurmond had been so supportive of his daughter, Essie, would it have wrong, because it would have hurt Thurmond among his racist base? I don't think so. But then, I'm not a righty.

As Rush Limbaugh so aptly pointed out today..

If they had been discussing mental health, and President Bush had brought up the bouts of depression Kerry's first wife suffered through during their marriage... the outrage from you kids would be through the roof.

You would have screamed - "That has nothing to do with this race!" And you would have been right.

Drew's got it exactly right. This is just an attempt to cut off voters on Bush's base who may not have known that Cheney has a gay daughter. I'm sure you have Lynne Cheney quivering in fear now that you've exposed her daughter for what she is.

So yes, please do keep talking about this issue. The GOP thanks you. =)

Of all places where I thought we might see a cogent analysis of the struggles and pressures facing parents of gays... And this is the best you guys can give? "Kerry's good enough for me"?

It's not like Mary Cheney's lesbianism was a classified secret and all the cries of "foul" over using a candidate's child to make a political point is nothing more than partisan hypocrisy(especially when one knows the vice president has publicly talked about his daughter's lesbianism).

I have no idea how Mrs. Cheney feels about her daughter but, according to Mrs. Cheney's quoted words mentioned in this article: http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=121 , she has a problem with her daughter's lesbianism.

I see the whole outcry as sound and fury that signifies nothing(paraphrasing the Bard).

Except, of course, that Dick Cheney's daughter is an official member of the BC'04 campaign, Chris Elam. Except, of course, that you and Rush are putting homosexuality on par with a disease. Lovely.

Liberals have a way of hearing Republicans say things that were never said.

With Bush, its the "eminent threat" quote. He never said it. Ever.

In the case of Lynne Cheney, BOR writers headline that she's ashamed of her daughter. Show me where she said that. On the contrary, she has made it obvious for years, even in the aforementioned article, that she does NOT want her daughters' personal lives brought up in the campaign.

In my case, Grunt (Grunt? I'm responding to a Grunt???) says I'm putting homosexuality on par with a disease. Riiiiight..... see if you can reach your toes while you're stretching. I'm sure you were very pleased with yourself after coming up with that one. You got me. I'm exposed for a fraud. You get an E for effort.

Chris,
If Kerry had supported massive rollbacks in mental health funding then it WOULD be perfectly appropriate for Bush to point out Kerry's first wife because it would expose Kerry's hypocrisy and unfeeling for someone in his family (or ex-family, I suppose).

Kerry mentioned Mary Cheney for two reasons: one, to put a human face on homosexuality and one who's always known they were gay; and two, to highlight the gaul and hypocrisy of an Administration willing to exploit gay bashing for political gain; you all are focused on a third reason - peeling away bigots - but I think that's only a side effect. And to be honest, not a bad one.

Elrod wrote

Kerry mentioned Mary Cheney for two reasons: one, to put a human face on homosexuality and one who's always known they were gay; and two, to highlight the gaul and hypocrisy of an Administration willing to exploit gay bashing for political gain;...

Gaul? I thought Kerry was the Francophile French-looking candidate in this election!...

Hint: proofread first, then click the "Post" button. Yes, I know - no one ever proofreads an Internet posting, but in this case the error is unintentionally funny.

Chris Elam,

First, though Bush may have never said the words “immanent threat,” the comments he and his administration made in the lead up to the Iraq war show that he made comments that were synonymous with Iraq being an “immanent threat.” Refer to: http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24970

Second, Mary Cheney is out. She was out when she took the job at Coors in Coors’ efforts to stem the loss in sales the boycott of their beer by the GLBT community. Her partner, Heather Poe, even was at the Vice Presidential debates with Mary. It’s not like she was in the closet or anything.

The faux outrage that Lynn Cheney is displaying is the height of hypocrisy. She didn’t have a problem when her husband, Dick Cheney, mentioned he had a gay daughter at a political rally. Dick and Lynn Cheney didn’t have a problem when John Edwards mentioned it in the Vice Presidential debate.

Your comparison of Mary Cheney and Kerry’s First wife are disingenuous. Mary Cheney’s lesbianism has nothing to do with mental health.

Kerry’s record on GLBT issues is so much better than Bush’s. That cannot be argued. I do not agree with Kerry’s stance on marriage, but at least he doesn’t pander to the religious right.

Chris,
Grunt still loves you, Sweetness, even though you resort to ad hominem logical fallacies.

jonathon, you forgot to point out that aggy wrote "eminent" as opposed to "imminent." if you're going to resort to spelling smack at least be consistent.