Posted on 05/02/2006 1:10:54 PM PDT by meandog
New York, N.Y. – In her new memoir, NOW IT'S MY TURN(Simon & Schuster/Threshold Editions, 2006), Mary Cheney writes that when she told her parents she was gay, the first words out of her father’s mouth “were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear: ‘You’re my daughter, and I love you, and I just want you to be happy.’”
VANITY FAIR editor Todd Purdum reports that Mary Cheney tells her story in a voice very much like her father’s, and that she came out to her parents when she was a junior in high school, on a day when, after breaking up with her first girlfriend, she skipped school, ran a red light, and crashed the family car. Cheney writes that her mother hugged her, but then burst into tears, worried that she would face a life of pain and prejudice.
When Purdum asks the vice president whether he thinks gay people are born that way, Cheney scrunches up his mouth, fixes him with a look that says “Nice try,” then says: “I’m not going to get into that. Those are deeply personal questions. You can ask.”
Mary Cheney tells Purdum that her father “has very little tolerance for bullshit, pardon my French.” She also says that one common reaction from people who have read the manuscript of her book is “‘Wow, you guys really have this close-knit, loving family,’ and it always strikes me as ‘Yeah, of course we do.’ It was very surprising to me that people would think we didn’t.”
When Purdum asks Cheney if he is fatalistic about his heart disease, Cheney says, “I am. I don’t even think about it most of the time. You do those things a prudent man would do, and I live with it.” Asked what he would have for breakfast at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, his favorite pre-fishing spot in Wilson, Wyoming, Cheney responds without missing a beat: “I’d probably have two eggs over easy, sausage and hash browns,” then hastens to add that that is not his normal breakfast. “The day I go fishing, I get off my diet,” he says.” At a roundtable lunch with reporters a couple of years ago, two who were present tell Purdum that Cheney cut his buffalo steak in bite-size pieces the moment it arrived, then proceeded to salt each side of each piece.
Cheney tells Purdum that he has not changed over the years, but perhaps many of his contemporaries think he has “because of my associations over the years, or because I came across as a reasonable guy, people have one view of me that was not necessarily an accurate reflection of my philosophy or my view of the world.”
Purdum asks Cheney if, during his “darkest night,” he has even “a little doubt” about the administration’s course. “No,” he tells Purdum. “I think we’ve done what needed to be done.” Of the debate over whether or not the administration hyped the pre-war intelligence, Cheney says, “In the end, you can argue about the quality of the intelligence and so forth, but ... I look at that whole spectrum of possibilities and options, and I think we did the right thing.”
Cheney rejects the caricature of him as the power behind the throne, insisting, “I think we have created a system that works for this president and for me, in terms of my ability to be able to contribute and participate in the process.” When Purdum says that the cartoon characterization of him must not be accurate, Cheney says, “My image might be better out there, this caricature you talk about might be avoided, if I spent more time as a public figure trying to improve my image, but that’s not why I’m here.”
Purdum reports that Cheney travels with a chemical-biological suit at all times. When he gave his friend Robin West and his twin children a ride to the White House a couple of years ago, West commented on the fact that Cheney’s motorcade varied its daily path. “And he said, ‘Yeah, we take different routes so that “The Jackal” can’t get me,’” West tells Purdum. “And then there was this big duffel bag in the middle of the backseat, and I said, ‘What’s that? It’s not very roomy in here.’ And [Cheney] said, ‘No, because it’s a chemical-biological suit,’ and he looked at it and said, ‘Robin, there’s only one. You lose.’”
Purdum talks with former New York Times reporter and former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, James Naughton, who asks of Cheney: “Does he acknowledge that he is not as pleasant as he used to be?” Naughton knew Cheney as a fellow prankster during the 1976 campaign, and all but sighs in search of an explanation as to why he is so different now. “I guess I would like to believe,” he says, “without any evidence to support it, that coming very close to death has somehow compelled him to act as though he only has so much breath and so much life, that he’s only got so much time to accomplish what he has to do. But the public figure is nothing like the private one that I remember.”
Gerald Ford tells Purdum: “He may have changed a bit, but that was required for the change of circumstances.” Ford, who will turn 93 in July, adds, “Times change, and people change as a result of that.”
“If you’re looking for a change from one point to another, being vice president is sui generis,” Lynne Cheney tells Purdum. “It’s not quite like any other job.”
The June issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and L.A. on May 3 and nationally on May 9.
It is. You can love someone without condoning flagrant sin.
Or they'll stick yo you like glue because you tell them it's ok.
Or they'll stick to you like glue because you tell them it's ok.
Eve was created so that man too could create life. What is sexually immoral is not to be found in Genesis anymore than the morality of using my foot to twist a doorknob.
LOL!
I love that!
You know the truth of what happened in that family better than Maya knows the truth EV?
"My A n j u l s say no, no, it was not inevitable at all and this should never have happened. They say that parents have some modicum of responsibility to their kids - at least so far as making sure they are not homeless and starving - especially if their kids have done nothing aside from thinking for themselves. They say that different political beliefs should not lead to parents kicking kids out of the house." -- Maya Keyes's blog
Here's another segment from that blog:
"I am being cut off, jobless, soon to be homeless, and that although I have intelligence and motivation I won't be able to go to Brown after all because I have no money."
Dick and Lynne Cheney love their daughter in spite of some serious differences, Alan Keyes elevates his political beliefs above his daughter.
Who is the selfish hedonist here EV?
That's too kinky for me. ;)
Do you make this up as you go along?
I'm definitely known as a critic of greedy business practices but it isn't clear your scenario fits that fold of cloth. If I feel inspired to write a book and a bunch of people buy it, then the publisher orders and sells more copies, etc., etc., that doesn't necessarily mean I'm greedy, does it? In fact, it would be out of the author's control.
However, it would seem only right that the author of a particularly successful religious book should plow a good chunk of the earnings/profits back into charity rather than endlessly accumulating material things,that's for sure.
If your POV is that religious works should never be sold for a profit, I can understand that and respect it.
I think people had plenty of differences to make life interesting long before the rise of homosexuality in our culture.
I'm glad you agree that those who want to live by "rules" are like infants not ready for solid food. Love is solid food, "rules" about which knee to bend onto first or conjecture about strangers and whether or not they are condemned by God for all eternity are infants suckling milk.
Few would suggest that Dick Cheney tell his daughter publicly or privately that she disgusts him. He should tell her that he loves her and deeply cares for. He should also remind her she's wrong, and if the Cheney's are genuinely religious, that her choice is considered sinful.
If you refer to my comment that perhaps a family friend, teacher, youth leader, etc. "introduced" Mary to the lesbian lifestyle, I am 100% sure that statistics bear me out, in that most early and preteens were "introduced" to a homosexual experience by an adult either in their own family, teacher, youth leader, Youth Pastor, etc.
As to your claim that I am and "idiot" because I believe statistics, I also work with homosexuals through outreach groups and to a person, they were "introduced" to homosexuality by an adult that was in a position of trust, who violated their innocence, i.e. Chastity Bono, to name just one well known homosexual.
Threads like this need levity!
I prefer lovingly, kindly, tactfully and gently.
God wouldn't ask such a thing since we have grace through the death of Jesus.
If you're asking a "hindsight" question (OT), it's redundant since hindsight is 20/20.
I believe I've heard Alan more than once say that homosexuality was MORALLY wrong and against his RELIGIOUS beliefs, am I correct?
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