Kerry’s gratuituous reference to the gay Cheney made me cringe. I don’t’ like the guy anyway, but I thought he was raised better than that. It didn’t go over too well with undecided voters either:
Forget his health care plan. Forget abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Forget even how many times he did or did not vote to raise taxes. Senator John Kerry may have lost three critical votes with a simple aside, when he invoked Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter as part of an answer on same-sex marriage.
“That is very unfair,” blurted Patsey Farrell, 64, one of a handful of undecided voters gathered here to watch the final presidential debate Wednesday night. “I’m sorry, that’s too personal. That’s too hurtful.”
Her son-in-law, Kevin Uhde, the 50-year-old elementary school principal who held this pizza party, agreed. “Not by name,” he said, shaking his head at Mr. Kerry on the 24-inch Phillips television set a few yards away. “Why single out one person?”
And Mr. Uhde’s wife, Karlen, added, “I think it’s like a low blow.”
Not only does the man have no core beliefs, he has no manners either. The children of politicians are people, not campaign issues.
Kerry’s a punk.
UPDATE: Liberal Commie “Nation” writer Marc Cooper was creeped out by the gay daughter thing, which he calls Kerry’s worst moment in the debate:
His sucker punch mention of Dick Cheney?s lesbian daughter. Please. Edwards did the same the other night. This is an obvious ploy to drive a wedge between Bush-Cheney and their most reactionary homophobic base. It stinks to high heaven
Yup.
As usual, you protesteth far too much:
1. First, the remark wasn’t “gratuitous.” It was in response to a question that dealt directly with the issue.
2. If Mary were an Evangelical Christianand Kerry made mention of that, would there be a similar outcry? Her sexual identity is something she experiences about herself and makes known to people (just as she would if she were a fundamentalist Christian); why should there be any hesitation for someone else to bring up what she, herself, publicly acknowledges and makes her living from?
3. One other argument is that this is offensive because it goes against the Cheneys’ control of perceptions of their families. Guess what? Making “family values” and “defense of marriage” part of your campaign makes this fair game. Deal with it.
There is nothing wrong with Mary Cheney being gay, and by huff-huffing about it, you’re either pretending there is something wrong with it (and thereby admitting that the “family values” gambit is a sham) or you’re just desparately trying to find some measure of comfort somewhere even though your guy hands down lost all 3 debates.
I think it’s the latter, personally.
Oh, yeah, ’cause it makes Bush Cheney look bad.
Tough noogies.
Actually, John, the polls show the President won the second and third debates – his share went up after both of them.
Kerry’s gay-bashing was over the line, and all fair-minded people know that.
Update: You’re busted. Cheney himself already made it an issue back in August.
Not according to WP. And I can cite other polls too.
Cheney can talk about his daughter being a lesbo if he wants, but Kerry can’t. It’s kinda like using the word “nigger”; some people can, and others can’t.
Bush never pointed out that Alexandra Kerry is a total slut, for another example, but Kerry can if wants.
Ah, you have revealed yourself with that remark, sir.
There’s nothing wrong with someone identifying themself as a lesbian.
And, as you yourself remarked, Alexandra Kerry makes a very good case for voting for her father, now doesn’t she?
(Besides, your digging your hole deeper. You got a problem with a young woman showing off a nice body like that?)
There’s nothing wrong with Alexandra Kerry being a slut, and there’s nothing wrong with Mary Cheney being a lesbo, but neither of them is running for office so they’re off the table.
It’s simply a manner of good etiquette.
Well, tell that to your vice president, not to me or John Kerry. After all, it was Cheney who made it an issue, not Kerry.
The issue is manners, Johnny, about which you are completely unschooled.
It’s best if you stick to lying about the polls.
LOL! I don’t cherry pick ’em like you do.
Check out the recent data on pollingreport.com.
And weep.
BTW, since when it is not polite to mention that a lesbian daugher is a child of God?
Sorry, but it’s Cheney who made it an issue, and you’re just upset because you folks have been completely, totally, and decisively out-Roved on it!
Were you raised by a pack of wolves, John? There are rules of etiquette in politics, and leaving the children out of the campaign is one of them.
The most recent data on Polling Report shows the president has increased his lead in some polls and simply retained it in others. These aren’t golf scores: the bigger number is the better number.
“Rule of etiquette in politics?” Don’t make me laugh.
For months you have been repeating every scurrious lie that has come down the pike to reinforce whatever psychodrama keeps you attached to this current regime.
And Kerry says an obvious truth, that nobody minds but Republican hacks and their supporters.
Don’t tell me about “etiquette,” that’s like Saddam Hussein giving a lecture on the rights of Kurds.
And again, if Cheney wanted his daugher out of politics, he wouldn’t have brought her up in the first place.
The real problem, Richard, is that you, and those like you, simply can’t handle the truth.
Oh, I just checked your link by the way- I suggest everybody does.
Your comments display an ignorance of the political process, John. Politicians do conform to rules of etiquette, especially within the legislative bodies. I’ve been there and seen it, and apparently you haven’t. Just because you behave like a junk-yard dog doesn’t mean everybody does.
Kerry presumed to speak for Mary Cheney, saying “if she were here, she would say …”. Whatever the topic, putting words in somebody else’s mouth is rude, and putting them in the mouth of your opponent’s child is outrageous.
So it really has not much to do with an issue, but a lot to do with “how it was done”.
Lynne Cheney made no response when Republican Senatorial candidate Alan Keyes made the following comments regarding her daughter, Mary Cheney:
In an interview with SIRUS satellite radio, the Internet’s Drudge Report said Wednesday, Keyes called Mary Cheney “a ‘selfish hedonist’ because she is a lesbian.” Keyes said: “The essence of … family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it’s possible to have a marriage state that in principal excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism.” Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney “is a selfish hedonist,” Keyes said: “That goes by definition. Of course she is.”
Lynne Cheney made no response when Republican Senator Rick Santorum made the following comments regarding homosexuality:
“I have a problem with homosexual acts.”
“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything,”
Lynne Cheney made no response when the South Carolina Republican Party put this plank in their platform this year, or when Republican Senate candidate Jim DeMint said he agreed with it in an open debate.
“We do not agree that unnatural or unhealthy sexual practices ought to be legitimized or promoted in the classroom, nor do we believe that known practicing homosexuals should serve as teachers in public schools.”
But Lynne Cheney went ballistic and called John Kerry a “not a good man” when he said this in last night’s debate.
“And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.”
Republicans attack, and Lynne Cheney ignores it. Democrats speak well of her daughter, and Lynn Cheney attacks.
Now who is using Mary Cheney for partisan gain?
The Bush Campaign is using Kerry’s comment about cheney’s daughter to deflect the blow of the debate and Bush’s comments.
Daughter, you’re engaging in something called “spin”; it means twisting things out of context to make them appear to mean something completely different from what they mean.
Alan Keyes, bless his little heart, didn’t introduce Mary Cheney’s name into the discussion, he responded to a question about her by name.
None of your other examples are personal, they’re on the general question.
Kerry made a general issue personal in a particularly craven manner, and that’s rude. The same could be said of President Bush if he chose to make Elizabeth Edwards an example of Morbid Obesity. It would be accurate, but it would rude. Politicans should stick to ideas, not personal attacks.
LOL! Kerry never presumed to speak for Mary Cheney- he merely opined what he thought she would say.
And I loved the roasting you got about how they all played silent when the folks in the Republican party did what they did.
Hey, don’t worry too much- Kerry will be better than Bush. Your life will be better, too.
What “roasting?” The vast majority of Americans agree with me that Kerry’s attempt to exploit Mary Cheney’s sexuality was over the line, which is one reason that he’s falling in the polls right now. Another reason is that Americans don’t want to replace a president of moral clarity with a slick-talking opportunist with no manners.
Oh, and did I mention Kerry’s a serial gigolo? The polls show more women will vote for Bush than for Kerry, as they see right through your boy.