Posted on 05/14/2006 5:03:17 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The lesbian daughter of US Vice President Dick Cheney hit out at President George W. Bush's support for a constitutional amendment proscribing gay marriage.
Mary Cheney, 37, told Fox News Sunday that the idea, which was backed strongly by Bush's Republican Party during his 2004 re-election campaign and continues to be promoted by many conservatives today, was "a bad piece of legislation".
"I think that is what the federal marriage amendment is, it is writing discrimination into the constitution.
"It is writing discrimination into the constitution and, as I say, it is fundamentally wrong."
"I would also hope that no one would think about trying to amend the constitution as a political strategy," she added.
Cheney, who worked on her father's campaign staff in 2004, said she very nearly quit the reelection effort over the issue.
In the wake of controversial moves to make same-sex marriage legal in California and other states, conservatives pushed strongly to have the constitution amended to define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman.
The effort failed in mid-2004, but a number of individual states passed their own initiatives to restrict marriage to traditional male-female couples.
Cheney, who has just published a book, "It's My Turn", covering in part her experience during the campaign, said she was troubled by the stance of the party she was backing.
"President Bush obviously feels very strongly about this issue ... Quite honestly, it was an issue I had some trouble with, as I talk about in the book. I came very close to quitting my job on the re-election campaign over this very issue."
But she said she was also "very angry" when Bush and Dick Cheney's opponents in the campaign, Senators John Kerry and John Edwards, challenged the Bush stance by publicly pointing out that Mary Cheney was a lesbian.
"It was a cheap and blatant political ploy" when Edwards used her as an example in debating the issue with her father, Mary Cheney said.
Speaking separately on Fox News Sunday, Bush's wife Laura noted the issue of gay marriage still sparked debate across the country.
"I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously," she said.
"But I do think it's something that people in the United States want to debate. And it requires a lot of sensitivity to talk about the issue, a lot of sensitivity."
Whoever thought that this is what moms want to hear on mother's day deserves contempt.
If gays all went on two separate islands, one being lesbians and the other homosexuals, there would be no life there after a few decades. So they can not create or be considered part of a NORMAL society.
They are tolerated, but nobody wants them teaching tolerance to children in public schools or making believe they are like normal heterosexual couples deserving the same benefits in law and elsewhere.
They will never have the same dignity or respect in their relationships as regular folks do. They need to get over it themselves, we do not have to go along and make believe with them to help them better embrace their fantasies IMO.
While I am not for gay marriage, I don't think the Constitution should be used this way either. The Constitution should only restrict the power of the government, not the rights of people.
A lot of sensitivity to talk about it? Not really. Marriage= 1 man + 1 woman.
Nothing sensitive about it. Sorry, I've lived with gay roommates, have been to gay establishments dozen upon dozens of times.
It hasn't affected by feelings on the matter (more a matter of confirming those feelings, actually), nor kept me from dealing with gays.
I see no reason to be sensitive. Say what you think. Just don't be an @#$# about it.
must suck to be dick cheney.
If gays all went on two separate islands, one being lesbians and the other homosexuals, there would be no life there after a few decades...
So, there would be no more gay people in the world ever again if they went to two islands?
hummmm....vacation to an island....hummmm....how much do I want to be a lesbian for a week or two?
This is quite true, and alludes to the reason why no state has any compelling interest in treating "gay unions" as just another type of "family." The family is about procreation, and, since they are pushing the question, ought be defined as such. The state has an interest and a responsibility to protectt he procreating family unit.
The family is the soil from which the state grows (if it grows at all). Homosexual relatioships are a fruitless vanity at best; arguably a detriment to the state as being burdensome to the procreating citizens.
I like Mary and she can certainly have any opinion she wants. Anyone who thinks this is going to hurt GWB in any way will, I suggest, need to think again.
You'd probably want to go to the gay guy island -- dancing, nice decor, better food.
I seriously doubt that.
I saw her interview on both Larry King and Fox. She was up front and honest saying sje disagreeed with Bush. But she was very respectful about it.
Hey, thanks for the advice. You're absolutely the best travel agent a girl.....er, guy, yea, that's right, guy could have.
(ew...I think ,,nevahmiand)
Being a guy, I would go to the lesbian island -- softball marathons, carpentry classes and lots of beer.
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