Mary Cheney breaks silence too little, too late

By Steve Charing
Senior Political Analyst

Mary Cheney is a sham.
Just thought that you should know,
When we needed her to speak the most,
She was mum ‘til book dough made her crow.

Mary Cheney, openly lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney is well known throughout the informed wing of the gay community. She had been out to her parents for a long time, was the gay liaison for Coors, and has a partner of 14 years. Right wing extremist goofball Alan Keyes had dubbed her a "selfish hedonist."

Recently Mary Cheney has been hitting the talk show circuit promoting her book, "Now it’s My Turn: A Daughter’s Chronicle of Political Life." I have not read it, nor would I ever consider it. I have seen and heard reports, however, that her book discloses her coming out issues including her brush with personal destruction, her family, and well as GOP politics and her father’s election campaigns.

Forgive me if I sound so loathsome towards Mary Cheney and her clan; that’s only because I am.

I took it personally when her father’s GOP, led by the rat named Rove, saw fit to label gays and lesbians as second-class citizens. They did this during the 2004 election campaign when Karl Rove managed to secure anti-gay marriage amendments on the ballots of 11 states to draw out so-called social conservatives (bigots) so they could tip the election towards the Bush-Cheney ticket. It worked, and I hate it.

But the lesbian daughter of Cheney quietly helped with the campaign while the President, conservative talk-show radio jocks, GOP surrogates, right-wing religious leaders and others vilified the gay community, some equating us with animals, incest, rape and polygamy.
An opportunity to defend herself and other lgbt individuals and to express strong opposition to this divisive tactic withered into eerie silence. So absent was Mary throughout these attacks that her photo was mockingly placed on a "Mary Cheney Missing" milk carton. Incensed gay advocates circulated the image around the Internet.

Now she is talking. The one million dollars she has received on her book advance obviously lured her out of the closet of silence. While she opines that the Republican-led effort to write discrimination into the Constitution is wrong, she ostensibly never explained why she didn’t speak out against it in 2004 or why her father couldn’t exert his vast, boundless influence to thwart the effort.

Even more disingenuous was her claim that she was piqued when John Kerry brought up her sexual orientation during the third presidential debate of the 2004 campaign She called his comments "a cheap and blatant political ploy," and that he tried "to make political points over my personal life."

Perhaps, but this faux outrage is coming from an openly gay woman whose Republican party used the wedge issue of "gay marriage" during the campaign to divide Americans. That certainly was a cheap political ploy, and its goal was to make political points. But it was carried out at the expense of millions of gay and lesbian Americans and their families.

Her repugnant mother Lynne ranted as well, calling Kerry "tawdry." Mary (and Mom) seemed to have forgotten that two weeks before Kerry’s comments, her father literally thanked John Edwards during the vice-presidential debate for his "kind words," which were similar to Kerry’s. What a family!

"I struggled with my decision to stay on the 2004 campaign," Cheney told ABC’s "Primetime." following President Bush’s statement that the nation must defend the sanctity of marriage. But instead of making a statement of her own, she remained on the staff and continued to receive her $100,000 salary from it.

More big bucks from her book advance coaxed Mary Cheney to finally speak out. The timing is right, however, since the dreaded second attempt of passing the Federal Marriage Protection Amendment is underway. But when it was needed most, her voice was silent. This time, it’s too little, too late.