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.
I'll look up the threads later and ping you, but out of curiosity, what is your interest?
My interest is in determining whether he is a Jeremiah, or a Jimmy Swaggart. I know your opinion. Now I'd like to know how you arrived at it.
It could be that I have been poorly-informed on the Terry thing. Do you have links to back up what you wrote?
thanks, Guitarist.
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism." (Randall Terry, The News Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 16, 1993)
Either look up the Schiavo threads or google Randall Terry. You'll get everything and more.
Yes, he is your father and he loves you and will not allow your chosen life style to change that but I am sure down deep inside it broke his heart.
... but I am sure down deep inside it broke his heart.
An unfortunate choice of phrasing given the vice president's medical problems.
She says she was told to leave her father's apartment and not to expect any money toward attending Brown University, where she was admitted but deferred matriculation to spend a year teaching in southern India. "In my father's view, financing my college would be financing my politics, in a sense," Maya says, "because I plan to be an activist after college."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20005-2005Feb12.html
A few quotes from Mr. Terry
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism." (Randall Terry, The News Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 16, 1993)
"It's like guerilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. You've got two choices: You can wear cammies and shimmy along on your belly, or you can put on a red coat and stand up for everyone to see. It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective." (Randall Terry, Los Angeles Times, 3/22/92)
"I want to be invisible. I do guerilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." (Randall Terry, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 1/9/91)
"The gloves are coming off with Michael Schiavo,"
"It is time for Christians to rise up against the ATF."
"Somebody like Susan Smith should be dead. She should be dead now. Some people will go, 'Well how do you know that God doesn't have a wonderful plan for her life?' He does. It's listed in the Bible. His plan for her is that she should be dead."
These links give a lot more information on Terry and his history. Googling Terry will give you most of what you want including his activities with Operation Rescue that resulted in his losing everything in lawsuits and settlements.
I was there, you weren't. But you're the expert...wow...
For the record, I never said he didn't refuse to pay for her further education. No parent has an obligation to do so, especially when that child is an adult...and are in full-blown rebellion against the parent's moral beliefs. Do you believe otherwise?
But she was never thrown out on the streets. It never happened. She was saying those things to gain sympathy from her screwed-up "friends" on line.
And she's still getting her brain washed at Brown in any case.
Do you think adult parents are obligated to fund their child's college tuition?
Especially when the child is using that college experience to rebel against everything you stand for?
Are you aware how incredibly infested Brown is by the radical Left?
She was interviewed by the Washington Post, so I don't know where you're getting off that it's just something she posted online. She told CBS the same thing.
Since she's given such public interviews in mainstream media outlets about her father kicking her out and refusing to pay her education, if indeed she's lying, it would be incumbent on her father to deny the charges publicly.
His silence speaks volumes.
Yeah, right.
I can't even believe you typed that.
You can't respond because you know it's true.
I can respond just fine. Such a suggestion simply doesn't deserve to be dignified by a response.
That's what people who can't explain something always say.
The above falls into the category of things that make you go "Huh?"
It's amazing where the bile of the folks who hate Keyes will take them.
You're Exhibit "A" for the hour.
But don't worry, someone else will be along before long to take your title. There always is among the Keyes-bashers.
Yeah.
Air his family business? He sure didn't have a problem airing the Cheney's family business, did he? And he's talked openly what he'd say if he had a gay daughter, all without admitting he had one. Lovely guy.
And your point about interviews being held with media that freepers hold in contempt doesn't hold water. If it was one media report, sure, I'd say maybe they made a "mistake" (read deliberate). But she's given several interviews saying the same thing to different outlets.
And then let's not forget that he sunk to a new low and played the race/victim card -- the very card he decries when the left plays it. He referred to George W. Bush as "Massa Bush" in the 2000 GOP presidential-primary debate.
He's a lose cannon and isn't ever going anywhere in national politics. Which suits me just fine.
Now you're not even making sense. But that seems to be a pattern with you. I don't believe I've ever posted on an Alan Keyes thread before. Ever. So your comment about my having bile and hate for Keyes is yet another lie you've told today on this thread. One of many. How very, very Christian of you.
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