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.
Bump.....
You can't be an influence for good in someones life if you've cut communication with them.
That's a pretty judgmental statement, don't you think?
Actually, if you correct your child then I am not saying you must write them off. I am just saying that sometimes it is all a parent can do. For that matter, sometimes it works the other way and the adult child must break the relationship. I honestly believe that. There are boundaries that should not be violated and behaviors that cannot be tolerated. Have you ever lived with an alcholic or a drug addict? Someone with a violent temper? Lots of things. Do you know, was the lesbian respecting her parents by not putting her sin in their face or did she expect them to give their stamp of approval and everything? Frankly, I feel more for the parents who are devastated than I do for the child who is actively sinning so profoundly. They probably feel they have lost their child either way. And the goal of the parents is most probably to turn the child around. I seriously doubt it is just a vengeful act. I do not know what I would do.
They gave her life and instruction. She should be grateful for that. She's an adult. Walk on her own two feet. If she wants them back, change her ways.
Funny, my daughter (who is gay) is of the same mind. I kind of thought that she was in the minority in thinking this. I wouldn't disclose the reasons that she thinks this way but I can tell you that she is afraid of boys and attention from boys.
Good memory, M. I'd forgotten about him.
I don't know if it would matter. Like I said, I do not believe in a God, so I have no dog in the "heaven or hell" race. However, your choice of words describing the family relationship (the negative "looking the other way," as opposed to something more positive, like "loving their daughter, warts and all") - when "standing before God" - suggests you already have their final resting place picked out, unless they abruptly cut ties with her.
I do not mean my criticism of the Cheney's to be because they didn't cut her off. I mean it be because they embraced her like it didn't matter. The "cut her off" thing was brought up by you and I think someone else (regarding Alan Keyes). I don't see that as the worst response, though not necessry (Alan did not cut his daughter off, for the record). I see the worst response as total acceptance.
If Republicans in Congress would stop spending money and enforce immigration law, I wouldn't care how many men they slept with.
I see the worst response as parents trying to "beat the gay" out of their kids. I've known several gay guys to whom this has happened -- I'm talking closed fist, heavy work boot beatings.
That's hideous.
I am proud of my Vice President today.
Okay, I thought this was Dana Carvey. I am sorry, but I did.
I still believe that it's an emotional/mental illness that can be complicated by other things such as exhibitionism.
When we were young, I used to hang out in gay bars with my brother and got to hear a thing or 2. And I was ALWAYS carded to see if I was a REAL girl. Back then, you could still be arrested for being in drag.
Yep.
No, what's hideous is that the father will get sick and the kid, now and adult, will travel back home to try to patch things up on the old man's death bed.
My attitude toward these little field trips is, "What are you, outta ya mind?"
More like "hero of the moonbat fringe of the right".
Hear! Hear!
No, that's not it. It's surprising to LIBERALS that a conservative could love a gay child. They think that low of us.
"In my opinion, Alan Keyes loves his daughter much more that the Cheney's love Mary. And the details of his family situation were widely misreported."
And on what do you base that? Surely you're not saying there is a certain amount of love assigned to each reaction a parent makes to difficult situations.
I always enjoy that some stupid people bring up immigration on every darn thread even when it has nothing to do with the topic.
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