Burnt Orange Report

August 24, 2004

Does Cheney Support his Daughter or his boss?

By Byron LaMasters

Or does he just flip flop?

He couldn't seem to make up his mind today:

Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian, spoke supportively about gay relationships on Tuesday, saying "freedom means freedom for everyone."

At a campaign rally in this Mississippi River town, Cheney was asked about his stand on gay marriage - an issue for which his boss, President Bush, has pushed for a constitutional amendment to ban such unions.

"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with," Cheney said. "With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.

"The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that's been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage," he said.

[...]

Last month, Lynne Cheney said states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships, a comment that came just days before the Senate failed to back the ban.

Cheney said the amendment did not have the votes to pass, but he also said the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed into law in 1996, may be enough.

"Most states have addressed this and there is on the books the federal statute, the Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996, and to date, it has not been successfully challenged in the courts and may be sufficient to resolve the issue," the vice president said.

[...]

During the 2000 campaign, vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney took the position that states should decide legal issues about personal relationships and that people should be free to enter relationships of their choosing.

Addressing Bush's position on the amendment, Cheney said, "at this point, save my own preference, as I have stated, but the president makes policy for the administration. He's made it clear that he does, in fact, support a constitutional amendment on this issue."

Why won't Dick Cheney just say point blank, "I disagree with the President on this issue, but he makes the decisions for this administration, so his position is our policy"? Ok, well Bush doesn't really make the decisions, but that's beside the point. He didn't say that, so all the modifying rhetoric is meaningless. Dick Cheney has constantly refused to back up his support that he expressed for states rights on the marriage equality in which he expressed in the 2000 Vice Presidential debate. "Freedom" doesn't mean "freedom for everyone" when he remains silent when his boss wants to write into the constitution of the United State an amendment saying that his daughter's family is of lesser value than the families that President Bush's daughter's might choose to have. Dick Cheney can't have it both ways.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at August 24, 2004 04:35 PM | TrackBack

Comments

This has to be a bad dream...

I support Kerry 100 percent, but how can this be that the Republican Vice President is better on the issue of marriage equality???

Kerry supports a ban on Mass. same sex marriage...apparently Cheney believes that Mass. is free to do what they want

The whole matter is shocking. I thank Cheney for his courageous actions, I am not going ever going to vote Republican, but I could see how this will bring Bush Cheney a lot of votes from the GLBT community

I wonder how Kerry will react....

Posted by: Brian at August 24, 2004 05:47 PM

First: The RNC gives all major speech time at the convention to moderates, blocking out the conservative/fundamental elements;
Second: Bush does a little back-peddling saying he could support civil unions or something to that effect;
Now: Cheny answers a question acknowkedging his gay daughter and, in effect, contradicting Bush's amendment stating that it should be a matter left to the states [as he's always stood] but in direct opposition to the amendment movement.

All of this within a couple of weeks BEFORE the convention. This smells of a possible plan that has been put into motion courting the majority of the public by finally hearing that they aren't as interested in the issue as the right would have everyone to believe.

Smart move? Dumb move? Could it backfire at the convention? Will the convention turn into a free-for-all? How is the right going to re-react? This bears watching. It's almost seems too convenient...

Posted by: Mike Ireland at August 24, 2004 06:22 PM

I don't understand why Cheney doesn't have more influence over Bush on this issue. Is Bush just tha homophobic that he had to go with the FMA? I can only guess that they already have the evangelical vote wrapped up and Rove doesn't care what Cheney says on the road now, or they have lost some of their message discipline.

Posted by: Nate at August 24, 2004 09:30 PM

Watch him squirm! That's laughable that he can try to duck this after all the stink they made threatening to screw up our Constitution with their bigotry.

Sure, speaking like a "trahl loir" you can argue whether it's a state or federal matter, Dick. But what about the Big Moral Question here? Why won't you tell Bush to fight for FREEDOM and what's RIGHT? WWJD?

I'd love to see Helen Thomas get to nail him on this.

Posted by: melior at August 25, 2004 05:12 AM

To the right of Dick Cheney. Bravo, President Bush. I guess that's what you get when you vote for a Bob Jones University conservative.

Posted by: Jeff at August 25, 2004 12:16 PM

News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas

August 24, 2004

Does Cheney Support his Daughter or his boss?

By Byron LaMasters