Where Cheney isn’t conservative, he leans libertarian. Thats how I read it.
He’s wrong though. Using the law to re-define marriage is to use government to intrude where it doesn’t belong. People are free to live how they want, but using government to redesign the underlying social structure isn’t conservative.
So while I like and admire Cheney, he’s wrong. In fifteen thousand years of human history there has never been such a thing as gay marriage. It doesn’t exist. Passing a law will not make it so.
So ultimately it comes down to the need to separate marriage and state.