Republicans can't stop talking about John Kerry's "low blow" during the third debate, when he began his answer to a question about gay rights by mentioning Dick Cheney's openly gay daughter Mary.
Mary Cheney's name came up in the vice-presidential debate, with no ill-will on either side, and Kerry's comment amounted to little more than saying that Mary Cheney, an acknowledged lesbian, would agree with his belief that homosexuality is not a choice. However ill-advised it may have been for Kerry to speak for someone who did not necessarily share his views, he clearly never thought that "lesbian" might be a fighting word.
The Cheney family, and Republicans in general, consider it to be just that. The Bush campaign has attacked Kerry's comment as being, if not downright insulting, at least below the (Bible) belt. The conservative columnist William Safire announced in Monday's New York Times that Kerry's purpose in mentioning Mary Cheney was to "confuse and dismay Bush supporters who believe that same-sex marriage is wrong."
Even Safire doesn't accuse Kerry of using "lesbian" as an insult. That would be absurd, considering that many gay-rights groups, including one organization of gay Republicans, approved of Kerry's remarks. What Kerry is accused of, in essence, is using the bigotry of Republicans against them.
Democrats won't see any insult, the argument goes, but the Christian right might be so shocked at finding a gay in the Cheney household that they will stay away from the polls.
If the accusations were true, this would indeed be a low blow, but the Bush campaign seems determined to go even lower. The Cheneys have done their best to spread the idea that Kerry cruelly and gratuitously outed their daughter before an audience of millions of Americans.
Several conservatives, including Safire, have also claimed that John Edwards took undue advantage of a chance to talk about Mary Cheney in the vice-presidential debate.
In fact, Dick Cheney has mentioned his daughter twice as an illustration of his position on gay rights. In the vice-presidential debate, the moderator asked a question that referred to Mary Cheney's sexual orientation, and John Edwards mentioned her in his response. The exchange was friendly, with Edwards complimenting Cheney on his acceptance of his daughter, and Cheney in turn thanking Edwards for his remarks. The vice president never criticized the moderator for bringing up Mary Cheney's name, even though that debate also had a large audience.
In the past few days, the Bush campaign has seized on a remark that made some people slightly uncomfortable and has inflated it into an issue that may have hurt Kerry's standing in the polls.
They have done so at the expense of the one person whose reputation and privacy they claim to be protecting. As of Wednesday, only the very politically informed and those who had watched the debates knew who Mary Cheney was. Since then, while attacking Kerry for invading Mary Cheney's privacy, the Bush campaign has made very sure that every voter with a TV knows about Kerry's remarks.
The Cheneys, who have been most vocal in condemning John Kerry, has made two things quite plain. First, they consider it offensive to call their daughter a lesbian in a friendly context, when she has never tried to hide that she is one.
And second, their concern for their daughter doesn't keep them from broadcasting to the world a fact which they clearly find embarrassing.
According to William Safire, Republicans hope that Kerry will "let his self-inflicted wound fester," so that they can run a TV spot attacking him for his words. Safire doesn't even try to hide the glee of Republicans who have finally found an angle from which to attack Kerry's skilled performance in the debates. And he freely admits that Republicans hope to keep Mary Cheney's name in the news for as long as possible, if using it will help bring down a candidate who supports gay rights.
Republicans claim that Mary Cheney is being exploited for a political purpose, and they are right. But it's not John Kerry who's exploiting her.
Katy Crane '07 plans a 2040 presidential run.
