WSJ: Outing Mary Cheney

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 15, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

...Mary Beth Cahill... told Fox News in a post-debate interview that Ms. Cheney was "fair game."

...The distasteful practice of "outing" public figures has become popular in recent years as some gays seek personal and/or political affirmation by publicizing the private lives of politicians, business leaders, Hill staffers and so forth.

Mr. and Mrs. Cheney have not kept their daughter's lesbianism a secret but neither have they shouted it to the sky. (In the days before the GOP Convention the Vice President mentioned it briefly at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa.) By outing Mary Cheney before millions of viewers on prime-time television, Messrs. Kerry and Edwards may hope to score points with their base of gay activists. Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian political organization, was quick to praise Mr. Kerry's words....

The other possible motive is more subterranean: depressing voter turnout, specifically among Christian and other cultural conservatives. It's no secret that a large evangelical vote is key to a Bush victory, especially in swing states. Republicans are devoting considerable effort to getting more evangelicals to the polls this year. Many stayed home in 2000 for want of an inspiring issue, or perhaps because of the late reports of Mr. Bush's drunk-driving arrest as a young man.

...Our guess is that by throwing a spotlight on Ms. Cheney -- and on her father's opposition to a Constitutional amendment on gay marriage -- Messrs. Kerry and Edwards were trying to send a cultural message that there's really no difference between the two tickets, so you evangelicals might as well stay home.

...[T]he Kerry campaign may be making a profound miscalculation -- both about the religious right and the larger religious middle of "tolerant traditionalists"... [by] assuming that anyone who opposes gay marriage is a bigot....

[killaB]

This affair just illustrates how political discourse, and politics in general, have degenerated in the USA over the years

[Tax-chick]

Messrs. Kerry and Edwards were trying to send a cultural message that there's really no difference between the two tickets, so you evangelicals might as well stay home.

I think they've sent the message pretty strongly, with the help of Republicans chorusing, "Nonsense, we're not bigots ... we all agree there's nothing wrong with homosexuality!"

It's not going to stop me from voting for President Bush - if his spending proposals didn't drive me away, nothing will! - but I have a sinking feeling, nonetheless, because it appears that yet another moral principle is now publicly off limits.

[joldnir]

Like I said before on another post about this, sKerry is a mean mean man to use someone's child to hurt their parents!

[NautiNurse]

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Edwards told a radio interviewer that Lynne Cheney might feel "a certain degree of shame" because her daughter is a lesbian. This pleasantry was in response to Mrs. Cheney's comment that Mr. Kerry's remarks were "a cheap and tawdry political trick." Sounds right to us.

"a cheap and tawdry political trick," sounds right to me too.

[Wolfie]

Outing? C'mon.

[Mamzelle]

I believe it was also sent out to marshal black voters for Kerry, who don't like the association with gays and oppose gay marriage--"They're queer, too" --was what Kerry, Breack Girl, and Big Betty were saying

[Thebaddog]

I remember in the first war in Kuwait, that Pete Williams was the DOD press briefer and that it was an open secret about his sexual orientation. Bush pere and his administration protected him and he went on to his career in the media. My opinion is that it's the Republicans who respect a person's privacy and their abilities regardless. Would Mrs Edwards care to comment on this subject as well?

[syriacus]

Mary Beth Cahill... told Fox News in a post-debate interview that Ms. Cheney was "fair game."

[sarcasm]

Imagine a Kerry presidency in which we read

Mary Beth Cahill... told Fox News in an interview that Chirac's daughter was "fair game."

Chirac reacts to Kerry's statement about his daughter

Yesterday, President Kerry told the world, via the White House Press Corps, what he thinks Chirac's daughter would say about her mental problems.

[/sarcasm]Chirac wife reveals marriage problems [BBC]

[joesbucks]

Agreed. This is no outing. It's been public knowledge for sometime, and I believe was discussed during the 2000 campaign. The handling by the conservative media has been just as heinous as the alledged abuse by Kerry and Edwards.

Secondly, if this causes evangelicals to stay home, then there's something seriously lacking in their abiltity to think and discern.

Certainly Kerry was using this to his political advantage. Wasn't his slutty daughters pic used in the same way? I didn't see too many editorials or talk show hosts discussing how someones sexual morals should be off limits, unless it's one of our own.

People on both sides need to get over it. This gay issue is only a point of division rather than seeking a pure understanding of what it is, why it happens and how it impacts our society.

[t-1000]

Kerry's statement concerning Mary Cheney was crass and undignified.
Primarily because Mr. Kerry seems to have appointed himself worthy of casting people into groups.
The bottom line is that Mary Cheney does not wake in the morning and say I AM gay. Just like I don't wake up and say I am white or hetro.
As long as people like John Kerry continue to categorize people, the longer our nation will be divided.
John Kerry is simply a Jackass.

[silent_jonny]

Big Betty is an extraordinarily stupid woman. She just angered nearly every parent in the country--as if what Edwards and Kerry said wasn't bad enough, she poured gasoline on the fire.

[Mfkmmof4]

How is attacking Mrs. Cheney supposed to gain votes for the Kerry/Edwards ticket?

[Enterprise]

I think Mrs. Edwards is a cheap and tawdry political wife.

[roses of sharon]

It illustrates how the left has managed thru their axis of Hollywood, MSM, and the Dems, to use sex as a political tool.

Dressing up sex in flowery civil rights language, is a direct assault on traditional values.

If your highest virtue is tolerance, then you have no others.

It is very skillful, the left thrives in an atmosphere of secularism, collectivism, victim-hood, and relativism.


Who is winning? They are, but maybe those who have been immune from the propaganda, will finally realize it this year and wake up.

[valkyrieanne]

If the anti-homosexual Republicans can restrain themselves for just another few weeks, the Bush administration can only win from this nasty little exchange. The Kerry campaign was IMO trying to pull a "Clinton" with all the trailer-park tackiness and none of the "charm." To continue to press the point is the worst of manners and even among liberals it will most likely backfire.

BTW, the point was not to "out" Mary Cheney - she was already out - it was to bait Pres. Bush or VP Cheney into saying something harmful to the Republican campaign.

[Jackie]

.

The author here says the Cheneys haven't kept their daughter's lesbianism a secret but they haven't shouted it to the sky. Mrs. Edwards says the Cheneys are ashamed of their daughter.

Kerry has been attempting to hide his Jewishness. Is he ashamed of it? (His grandfather changed the family name from Kohn to Kerry.)

.

[massgopguy]

Dick Cheney's daughter is a Lesbian. Dick Cheney's Lesbian daughter works for Coors. John Kerry would not drink a Coors beer he was offered on a flight last week. Hmmm.

[Arrowhead1952]

I'd like to hear the outrage from the left if the debate subject would have been obesity and the exchange would have gone something like this:

Sheiffer (?? on spelling) to skerry
Do you think obesity is a national problem and should be treated as a disease?

skerry
Of course I do. We need to get this problem under control by limiting the fats in foods............ (then continue for his two minutes)

Sheiffer - Mr. President, you have 1 1/2 minutes to respond.

President Bush
Yes we do have a problem with obesity. Just ask Mrs Edwards. She is really chubby.

[syriacus]

Outing? C'mon.

Not an "outing" in the US.

But let's not be too America-centric in our thinking. Let's remember that folks in other parts of the world were watching the debates.

They may object to Kerry "naming names" as he publicly labelled someone as a homosexual, without asking her permission.
Perhaps, especially in Germany, people will remember when when gay males were identified publicly with a

Pink
Triangle