Posted on 11/18/2013 9:49:51 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I’m tempted to call this a clever Cheney family ploy to burnish Liz’s conservative credentials ahead of her primary against Mike Enzi, except … Enzi’s opposed to gay marriage too. It may help her pass a tea-party litmus test but it doesn’t actually gain her anything against the incumbent. On the contrary, all the attention to this subject is likely to remind Wyoming conservatives not only that the Cheney family is notably pro-gay among Republican royalty — Dick Cheney’s other daughter is herself married to a woman — but that Liz herself was widely assumed to be pro-SSM based on things she’s said in the past. Either (a) everyone misunderstood her position before, (b) she’s an exceedingly rare example of someone who used to support gay marriage but has since “evolved” in the other direction, or (c) her endorsement of traditional marriage on “Fox News Sunday” is just an empty pander to tea partiers.
Here’s Heather Poe, who’s married to Liz’s sister Mary, responding to her opposition of SSM yesterday on Facebook. I wonder which of the three explanations above she favors.
I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say “I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.”
Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 – she didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us.
To have her now say she doesn’t support our right to marry is offensive to say the least
I can’t help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other.
I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE.
Mary Cheney, Liz’s sister and Poe’s spouse, replied, “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Legit sibling feud or campaign charade aimed at highlighting Liz’s ostensible social conservatism? The NYT thinks it’s the former:
The situation has deteriorated so much that the two sisters have not spoken since the summer, and the quarrel threatens to get in the way of something former Vice President Dick Cheney desperately wants a United States Senate seat for Liz…
People who have spoken to Liz Cheney say she is irritated that her sister is making their dispute public and believes it is hypocritical for Mary Cheney to take such a hard line now, given that she worked for the re-election of President Bush, an opponent of same-sex marriage…
Mary Cheney, 44, said in a phone interview Sunday that she presumed her sister shared her fathers views on marriage, and that view was reinforced because Liz Cheney was always very supportive of her relationship with Ms. Poe and the couples two children. She learned otherwise in August when Liz Cheney declared, shortly after announcing her Senate candidacy, that she was opposed to same-sex marriage rights. Mary Cheney said it is now impossible for the sisters to reconcile as long as Liz Cheney maintains that position.
What amazes me is that she says shes running to be a new generation of leader, Mary Cheney said, citing her 47-year-old sisters slogan in her campaign against Mr. Enzi, 69. Im not sure how sticking to the positions of the last 20 or 30 years is the best way to do that.
That last paragraph is the killer, since one of Liz’s big headaches in the primary is reassuring primary voters that she’s a bona fide conservative and a bona fide Wyomingite. Enzi and his surrogates, like Rand Paul, have needled her about her east-coast pedigree, knowing that calling her authenticity into question on one point may lead voters to question it on the other. Liz’s counter to all that is that the Senate needs new blood; now here comes Mary Cheney to question whether Liz’s supposed advantage over Enzi — youth and fresh thinking — is much of an advantage after all. Result: Some social-con voters may doubt whether Liz is really as much a supporter of traditional marriage as she says and others may doubt whether she’s really that much different from Enzi. Not a good place to be — especially with Enzi getting good press lately for his early skepticism of ObamaCare and reaching out to tea partiers by publishing op-eds at sites widely read by grassroots conservatives.
Here’s what she said yesterday, and beneath it is what she said in 2009. She never explicitly says in the latter that she supports legalizing gay marriage, but she does say that her “family” endorses the idea that “freedom means freedom for everyone” — the very words that Poe threw back at her in yesterday’s Facebook post. Draw your own conclusions about what her position was at the time.
Someone help me out here. Isn’t it possible to have friends and family who are “gay”, but, still want them to find happiness in life? But at the same time, still not want to change the definition of marriage???
Isn’t it possible that Liz Cheney loves her sister in spite of homosexuality, wants her sister to be happy in life, but at the same time, doesn’t kowtow to the liberal homosexual agenda??? Is that an irreconciliable difference????
Good luck with that. I fear her sister will make it her mission in life to derail Liz's bid.
I’m not buying this for a minute. Her parents are 100% for “gay marriage”, and so is Liz. She is posing as anti-SSM to win over social conservatives. Once in office she would “evolve” on the issue and switch back. She is dead in the polls and desperate.
RE: Isnt it possible that Liz Cheney loves her sister in spite of homosexuality, wants her sister to be happy in life, but at the same time, doesnt kowtow to the liberal homosexual agenda??? Is that an irreconciliable difference????
No it is not. However, we must understand that to gays, it is not a matter of leaving them alone to pursue whatever relationships they want... they want EVERYONE to celebrate their lifestyle and call it NORMAL ( that includes the religiously devout ).
She will “evolve” on this issue if she wins the nomination and I think everyone knows it
Should be a fun Thanksgiving at the Cheneys this year.
Maybe her sister can get on the ballot and run against her?
heh
OH can you imagine that Thanksgiving dinner with Cheneys LOL!
It is what it is. Everybody knows that the sister is gay and does not agree with Liz. Liz says that she loves her sister but does not agree with her lifestyle.
Is this somehow a factor in her race for the senate seat?
Are there some Fred Phelps' supporters in the crowd?
RE: She will evolve on this issue if she wins the nomination and I think everyone knows it
Are you telling me that this “feud” is for show and they are winking at each other after taping is over?
Don’t know why not - neither of them have lived in Wyoming...
Then I don't think we need to worry about it.
Liz is posing for the primary.
Dilbert, I think this entire kerfuffle is just another example of homosexuals trying to make homosexuality the sine qua non of elective politics. They seem to be the most relentlessly self-absorbed people in the nation; and, yes, I know that is saying a lot, given the high profile race-baiting we have endured over the last few decades. They seem to have never understood that tolerance does not require affirmation, that it’s perfectly reasonable to be nice to people with whom you passionately disagree, but then again, such willful denial is part and parcel of victim-hood, isn’t it?
I will be glad to help you out here.
Yes, it's certainly possible for someone to love a family member who is gay and have a good relationship with them, and want them to be happy -- but never-the-less not believe in gay marriage or to accept the relationship that they're in is a "marriage". A number of conservative politicians are in situations like that.
However, in Liz Cheney's case, this did not occur. Liz Cheney whole-heartily supported her sister's gay marriage at the time it happened, and has spent the last four years applauding every single advance of the "gay rights" movement, whether it personally involves her sister or not (gays serving openly in the military, etc.). Apparently Liz Cheney feels you have to support 100% of the gay rights agenda so she wouldn't hurt poor Mary's feelings.
Her sudden flip-flop now that she's running for the U.S. Senate is a staunchly conservative state won't change her history on this issue. Most likely, she continues to applaud her sister's gay "marriage" in private, while publicly claiming otherwise.
Whatever the two women have, it’s not a marriage. And Liz is not that woman’s SIL and never will be.
My SIL is gay and is “married.” Our family loves these 2 women, our kids love them, but just because we want them to be happy and not lonely doesn’t mean we support their lifestyle or SSM.
It’s the gays who make this a zero sum game and demand total surrender to their agenda.
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