Vice-President Dick Cheney's conservative credentials were burnished
many years ago. During his ten years representing Wyoming in the House
of Representatives, he was easily one of the most conservative members
of Congress.
His voting record was uniformly anti-gay. He opposed the ban on
selling armor-piercing bullets, opposed sanctions against South Africa,
and actually voted against a resolution calling for the release of
Nelson Mandela from prison. On the education front, Cheney voted for a
constitutional amendment that would ban school busing and voted against
Head Start. As Secretary of Defense, he further burnished his
conservative rep by directing both the invasion of Panama and Operation
Desert Storm.
Clearly, for much of his political career, Cheney has been a true conservative's conservative.
However, I've always found his unmitigated love
and support for his openly gay daughter to be not only surprisingly
candid and contradictory but also, in a weird way, quite touching. Who would have thought a hard-core conservative would be so openly accepting of a gay child? However, the fact of the matter is that he and
his daughter, Mary, have always been extremely close.
She is his closest confidante and, throughout the years, has always
been one of his top campaign aides. One only has to observe the two
of them together to witness their genuine love for one another.
Since his daughter came out of the closet as a lesbian, Cheney's
political views towards homosexuals have changed slightly and he has demonstrated a willingness to defy his conservative comrades. When the
Bush administration supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, a
proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would limit
marriage to heterosexual couples and also ban civil unions and domestic
partnership benefits, Cheney opposed both his president and his party
by stating that he was against the amendment and that it was an issue
to be determined by the states.
The Cheney family is now back in the news as Mary and her partner
Heather Poe (who have been together for 15 years) have declared that
Mary is pregnant. This news has clearly rankled many conservative
groups around the country. However, true to form, Vice-President
Cheney continues to publicly state that he could not be happier and is looking forward to having another grandchild.
Look, I'm not going to get into a political debate here. However, the fact
of the matter is that Cheney, no matter what one thinks of his beliefs
or convictions, is like many of us. He's a devoted father who clearly
has an unconditional love for his child and is willing to do anything
for her. In this era of partisan politics, isn't it nice to see a little
humanity from our polticians...in any way, shape or form?
