The Cheneys = Hypocrisy personified

[beaconess]

Pat Robertson: Blames Mary Cheney, by extension, of responsibility for 9/11 terrorist attacks. "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen."(September 2001)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

Rick Santorum: Accuses Mary Cheney, by definition, of immorality comparable to polygamy, adultery and incest. "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." (April 2003)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

Alan Keyes: Specifically accuses Mary Cheney, by name, of being a "selfish hedonist." (August 2004)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

John Kerry: Sympathetically and eloquently explains that the Cheney's gay daughter is "she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as."

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: THIS IS NOT A GOOD MAN!!!! WHAT A CHEAP AND TAWDRY POLITICAL TRICK!!! YOU SAW A MAN WHO WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED!!!

[RobertSeattle]

1. Outstanding post

This is a keeper.

To paraphrase the Bible, by their Silence ye shall know them...

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. ..

[Demit]

3. Excellent! Thanks for putting that together

[neomonkey]

4. Copying and reserving Paste

for those crucial moments as they come :)

[Ducks In A Row]

5. Emailed it to Hardball and Countdown

we should email this list to all the news people bashing kerry

[Catfight]

6. You need to send that too your local newspapers and Kerry/Edwards.

That is very well done!

[MADem]

60. YES!! And to CNN, MSNBC, and Faux too! n/t

[apnu]

7. brilliant! I'm sending this on to my private group of friends!

:yourock:

[peacetalksforall]

8. Excellent! Mail to everybody starting with Robertson, Santorem, and

Keyes - editors - Karl, Karen, Bill Bennett and a bunch of other morality policemen and women.

[Booster]

9. Perfect. Sent to everyone I know. Right on target.

[Bandit]

10. I suggest they get Bill O'Reilly to "Cure Her"

:shrug:

[beaconess]

11. Yecch!

[spooky3]

12. Excellent point!

[Skinner]

13. I'm going to give this a kick.

Good post. :thumbsup:

[Shopaholic]

14. I'll give you yet another example--

last week, US Rep Jim DeMint, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Fritz Hollings said in a debate, against his Democratic challenger, Inez Tennbaum (who is currently SC's Education Secretary) that gays should not be allowed to teach in state classrooms because their values are not those of the people of South Carolina. Not only did the Cheney's not say a word, Dick Cheney has been to the state at least once (and I think twice) to campaign for DeMint (or as I like to call him, DeMinted)! Where's their outrage over THAT?

[King Coal]

20. Good? It's Tony-The-Tiger GRRRRRRREAT!

[LynnTheDem]

15. Because Kerry should have said...

MARY CHENEY IS A SELFISH HEDONIST FOR BEING GAY!

[Jasper 91]

16. Very eloguent and concise .

THEY are the ones using this for political gain .
THEY are the ones who are trying to use this to denigrate their opponent .
THEY are the ones who are trying to keep this in the news .
THEY are the ones who are trying to re-direct attention from their lies .

[soleft]

17. Nuff said

:thumbsup:

Permission to media blast this????

[beaconess]

18. sure

[dezenbunny]

19. to be honest...

...only one of the above is really relevant - the comment from Keyes. The other ones aren't specifically about their child (which from my understanding is what they are re-acting to - their daughter being brought up for political purposes).

And really, the Keyes one isn't really applicable as he didn't bring up Mary Cheney - the interviewer did.

my two cents.

DeZenBunny

[Chiyo-chichi]

21. Alan Keyes

might have refused to answer and said something like "I don't want to comment on specific people." But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Don't blame the reporter for asking what was a damn good follow-up question.

[PATRICK]

23. True, but the post above

is more honest in content than what the Cheney's et. al. are trying to pass off. They have non sequiturs of their own for political purposes.

Since this is not a court of law but public opinion this post is 100% justified. If you want to split hairs you could go on longer in essay form or change the idea to match, but the truth would be even worse(IF the public could follow) that Cheney never publicly backed up his daughter until they lost the Log Cabin Republicans and the wedge issue of the amendment struck at his own family and credibility. Even then they played the Cheney statement vaguely and quietly granting every nuance and weakness before it simply vanished off the screen.

No one can be as hotly indignant as a hypocrite. No one can be rewarded as much for venting as a member of the GOP elite.

[Pithlet]

25. No

If they aren't willing to speak up for their daughter when public people -particularly those on the right who support the current administration - make such hateful statements about gays and lesbians, then they have no right to complain when a Democrat, who is arguing AGAINST those hateful comments, brings up their daughter as an example. It is hypocritical of them, and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out. Those comments absolutely ARE relevant.

[NightOwwl]

27. The point is...

they let slanders and smears against gays and lesbians go by without a peep. Which by extension includes their daughter. But Kerry has the "nerve" to say something nice about Mary Cheney and now the Cheney's are attacking Kerry like he's the devil.

Hypocritical, much?

[Catherine Vincent]

32. and your two cents ain't worth SQUAT!

[dezenbunny]

64. Wow.

Why the attack?

[Chelsea Patriot]

66. Uh..Maybe because you're defending The Cheney's on your 18th post?

Doll, can't you remember?

Respond to a few more puppy and kitty threads in The Lounge.

Build up your post count, then starting defending.

Didn't your Pimp explain that to you in the Orientation?

[dezenbunny]

67. No one told me I'd get a pimp.

How or when did you perceive that I defended Cheney? Re-read my posts if you would. My only goal is clarity and honesty in the discussion.

If we can't have honesty - what's the point?

And, imho, suggesting that someone limit expressing a point of view until they have received a certain number of posts seems to imply that the only experience relevant to discussing thses issues is how many posts one has made here.

Does experience gained outside DU count for anything?

[sundancekid]

59. to be more honest ... cheneys have THEMSELVES named their daughter

on the campaign stump as being gay/lesbian ... she has, by definition, become a public figure by virtue of her campaign involvement in 2000 and 2004, plus her PR work position to influence gays/lesbians on behalf of Coors ... puhleeeeze ... who's kidding who here??? who's USING her by name/id for political purposes??? the cheneys were the FIRST and set the example of "appropriateness" -- what's good for the goose,isn't good for the gander?

[wtmusic]

70. agree n/t

[Blue_Roses]

22. kick

good post!:kick:

[dezenbunny]

24. Did I blame the reporter?

Ummm, I don't remember "blaming the reporter." Can you point out where I did that? All I was attempting to do is keep it apples and apples.

[Blue_Roses]

26. what the hell are you talking about?

:shrug:

[dezenbunny]

68. clarifying

Someone said "don't blame the reporter." I asked how I blamed the reporter. What didn't you understand?

[Selteri]

28. On this subject

3 years ago a gay friend of mine commented that Bush was going to go after the homosexuals of the country.

I laughed it off and said, "That'd be political suicide, he'd never be able to manage that."

It was before 9-11-01

Boy, am I eating crow over how much it has become embroiled into our country.

[bloom]

29. That sums up the situation very well

:bounce:

[dezenbunny]

30. If the issue was homosexuality, then...

...yes, those things would be relevant. But the issue is did Kerry step out of bounds to include Cheney's daughter when he didn't need to involve her?

The comparable analogy would be Bush bringing up something about Kerry's kids or previous marriage.

Apples to apples.

[beaconess]

34. Bush DID bring up Kerry's kids

In the first debate, he praised the way they have handled themselves in the campaign and said he appreciated that they reached out to his daughters.

In other words, he said something nice about Kerry's kids.

And Kerry said something nice about Cheney's kid.

If Mary Cheney were a teacher in an inner city public school and Kerry was answering a question about why people become teachers, instead of going into a more lucrative profession, no one would have batted an eye if he had said, "And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a teacher, she would tell you that she was just following a calling. She's doing what she was born to do. I think we have to respect that." I cannot imagine anyone screaming about how wrong it is for Kerry to bring up Cheney's daughter or suggest that he's "not a good a man" for doing so.

If the Cheneys reaction is heartfelt, it reveals their continuing homophobia and hypocrisy. If not, it's little more than a cynical effort to distract attention from the real issues (and from the fact that Kerry cleaned Bush's clock).

[dezenbunny]

58. What was it?

What was the "something nice" that Kerry said about Cheney's daughter? My memory is that he just said if you asked her...and then inserted what he thought her oipinion would be.

How are they comparable?

[drdigi420]

37. wrong. the issue was choice or birth re: gay

the ONLY people to take offense to that remark are people that see the term 'lesbian' as an insult

aka bigots

[dezenbunny]

57. Non-bigot taking offense

Um, not a bigot here. And I found it offensive. And he never answered what HE thought. And if he is going to invoke someone else's opinion - perhaps it should have been someone's opinion that he knew and did not have to guess at.

hmmmm?

[Catherine Vincent]

31. Republicans have always been such hypocrites!

You should email those quotes to Olbermann. At least he would point that out since the rest of the media won't touch it.

[sisenor]

33. And not only that, but the Cheney's are using their daughter

since the debate, to distract the media from Bush's Osama comment, that he actually said he is not thinking much about him now. In my view, the Cheney's blowing hysterics over this, is in itself a political trick and the media is buying it. I am outraged that we are hearing more of Kerry's comment, that of Bush' complete flip flop over Osama Bin Ladin.

[StlMo]

51. Exactly - Cheney is distracting the public from yet another Bush lie.

Cheney's fake outrage is a smoke screen and the media whores are complicit in it.

[truthpusher]

35. Don't Forget...

'Cheney thanked Edwards for his "kind words" when Edwards referenced his daughter's sexual orientation during the VP debate.'

[beaconess]

36. Typical bully - he only talks smack when his opponent isn't around

to talk back.

[hockeyrules]

38. VOTE in AOL poll on Kerry/Mary Cheney

We've been getting hammered by the SCLM all day on this issue.

Vote in the AOL poll.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/elections/article.adp?id=20041015022209990001

[Mr_Spock]

40. AOL only want thier angry red-neck bigots to be able to vote on their poll

"AOL Members-Only Area

This area is for AOL members only. My AOL provides members with the ability to get personalized content and features from AOL all on one page. My AOL lets members customize news, sports and weather; get local movies, TV and event information; access Mail, Portfolio, Alerts and more.

Although you have a valid Screen Name and password, you are not an AOL member.
Click here if you want to join AOL.
Click here to sign in with an AOL Member Screen Name"

Fuck them!!

[StlMo]

49. Welcome to DU, hockeyrules!

:hi:

Hockey does rule.

[lfs5]

39. Cheney Response to Kerry Comments

From BuzzFlash.com

Since John Kerry bested Bush by 3-0 in a debate sweep against two-faced George, the White House has been fumbling for distracting character attacks to get the media off of discussing Bush's unpresidential performance.

So they trotted out Lynne Cheney, author of a torrid lesbian romance novel some years back, to wax indignant that John Kerry mentioned that her daughter was gay in the context of the need to accept homosexuals as part of the American family "The vice president’s wife, Lynne Cheney, called Kerry 'not a good man' and his remarks about daughter Mary Cheney 'a cheap and tawdry political trick.'"....

It took the usual Republican hypocrisy for Lynne Cheney to denounce Kerry as "not a good man," given that her husband, Dick, thanked John Edwards for expressing somewhat similar comments during the VP debate :

" Edwards: Now, as to this question. Let me say first that I think the Vice President and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing. And there are millions of parents like that who love their children, who want their children to be happy."

After which, Dick Cheney responded: "Well, Gwen , let me simply thank the Senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that, very much."

So, because Kerry KO'd Bush in the debates, the Cheneys are sent out to act as if their openly lesbian daughter has been outed....

Can you imagine how awful it must be fore Mary and her partner to be used in such a manner? Certainly these people are shameless!

[StlMo]

48. Welcome to DU, lfs5!

:hi:

[Mr_Spock]

41. Thanks for putting their hypocrisy into the bright light it deserves!

Cheneys should talk about bad people - they are evil mother fuckers.

[HootieMcBoob]

42. It's In Her Freaking Job Title People!

From September 12, 2000

...It’s not for want of trying by reporters. In an attempt to talk to her, The Advocate contacted friends, associates, and former coworkers from Coors Brewing Co. Some had lost contact with her since she left her job as a manager of Coors’s corporate relations for the gay and lesbian market. Others, such as activists at Equality Colorado, a statewide gay group, refused to pass along messages out of respect for her privacy. Some people who knew her did not return phone calls, and messages to Cheney’s home in Conifer, Colo., went unanswered. Suddenly, the woman who is the first openly gay or lesbian child of a major national candidate (and a conservative one at that) was nowhere to be found—except on television screens across the country as she sat at the Republican convention applauding her father. The silence is particularly striking for someone who until recently made her living doing outreach to gays and lesbians, even touring the country with the 1999 International Mr. Leather to bolster support for Coors among gays and lesbians.

<snip>

http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/820/820_cvr_cheney.asp

[smtpgirl]

43. serious hypocrisy!!

beaconess,

Just goes to show how these people function!! If you aren't rah rah for them you are a F&#%*!' liberal. Mary Cheney was out, not outed. From a hedonist and a liberal

[StlMo]

50. Welcome to DU, smtpgirl!

:hi:

[intheflow]

65. Welcome beaconess!

:hi:

[bush equals idiot]

44. Once again, I am going to fly over

and drop a little positive dust out of my plane.

Mr. and Mrs. Cheney, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

We know what you're doing. So keep it up if you like, but remember you were forewarned. This will come back at you like a warp speed boomerang.

[StlMo]

45. Great Post!

Alan Keyes' statement and the deafening silence from Dick and Lynne Cheney are very revealing.
That incident alone is a damning indictment of the GOP.
Dick Cheney will say anything and hurt anyone (including his own daughter) for political gain.
Cheney is a despicable hypocrite for his reaction to John Kerry's illustration that lesbians are human beings and deserve rights too.

[bklyncowgirl]

46. Excellent! thanks for the ammunition.

I'm going to visit the relatives today. I'd forgotten about Pat Robertson and Rick Santorum.

[cboy4]

47. See what happens

when you try to reach out and say nice things about
Republicans?

Thanks and good job with this great post!

[TaleWgnDg]

52. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson . . . mp3

**************************************************
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson
PLACING BLAME for 9-11-01
http://cronus.com/images/jerry_falwell_patty_robertson.mp3

Falwell: "I really believe that the pagans and
the abortionists and the feminists and the gays
and the lesbians . . . ACLU (and the) People for
the American Way, all of them who try to secularize
America -- I point the finger in their face and
say 'you helped this (9-11-01) happen.' "

Robertson: "I totally concur. . . . We have adopted that
agenda at the highest levels of our government . . .
and the top people is, of course, the court system ."

http://cronus.com/images/jerry_falwell_patty_robertson.mp3
*************************************************

. . . . . . .

[beaconess]

53. Thanks for this

I attributed that quote to Pat Robertson, but it was really Jerry Falwell who said it, with Robertson concurring.

Thanks for clarifying.

[TaleWgnDg]

54. np and lots of ppl get it confused . . . n/t

[trukurt]

55. Cheney Hypocrisy

Let's not all forget the fact that Bush himself has campaigned to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying by trying to add an amendment to the Constitution. How can the Cheney's "complain" about Kerry praising their daughter when their employer is trying to take away gay and lesbians rights away for the benefit of the religious right?!

Lynne should be saying this to Bush when he tries to promote his anti-gay politics "THIS IS NOT A GOOD MAN!!!! WHAT A CHEAP AND TAWDRY POLITICAL TRICK!!! YOU SAW A MAN WHO WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED!!! " I think that's more suited for Bush!

Also I agree this is a political diversion, I saw Paula Zahn interview Mary's sister and she asked directly if she had talked to Mary about this and was she offended? The sister couldn't answer the question straight out. So obviously they never asked Mary about this, nor has she ever talked to the press directly! Do the math.

[BlueNomad]

56. Haha Yes that was PRICELESS

We laughed so hard. Obviously she disagrees with her family. When Paula Zahn asked her if she had spoken to her LESBIAN sister about the remark--she said yes. When Paula Zahn asked was her sister offended--she answered "The remark was offensive." When pressed about her sister's feelings about it she refused to answer directly and just said "what I'm saying is the remark was just offensive."

To whom her parents and other disingenuous homophobes?

[Forkboy]

61. This is perfect!

Thanks :kick:

[Karenina]

62. Perfect.

[PA Democrat]

63. That is great! Here's another one for your list beaconess

At a January 2001 Republican Unity Coalition breakfast held to coincide with the inauguration of George Bush and Dick Cheney, former Republican U.S. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming “spoke of having known Vice President Dick Cheney for more than 35 years, and of having watched his lesbian daughter Mary group up to be ‘one of
the most remarkable women.’”

http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/MaryCheneyFacts.pdf

[dezenbunny]

69. Still trying to clarify

Question - can someone tell me what Kerry's response to each of the above comments was? Kerry's response - not the DNC or other Democrat.

Secondly:

"John Kerry: Sympathetically and eloquently explains that the Cheney's gay daughter is 'she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as.'"

He didn't explain that. He just said "if you asked her..." It's not the same thing.

And he still hasn't answered the question of what HE thinks.