If I Were Gay, I Would Not Be Happy
By Bonnie Chernin Rogoff (10/15/04)
There aren’t enough negative adjectives in the English language to describe the chutzpah (that’s Yiddish for colossal nerve, or gall) demonstrated by Senator John Kerry when he made the following nasty comment in the final 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.”
The Senator was not asked about Mary Cheney. He was asked if homosexuality was a choice. President Bush answered the question honesty, saying he doesn’t know.
By publicly airing that Mary Cheney is a lesbian, John Kerry broke the Democrats’ golden rule. They say that government should stay out of people’s bedrooms; the government has no right to invade someone’s privacy. Evidently, that credo only applies to abortion and only outside a campaign. To win an election, it’s perfectly fair for Senators Kerry and Edwards to embarrass and exploit their opponent’s daughter’s sexual orientation on national television. Senator Kerry’s campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, wasted no time defending her man on Fox news immediately following the debate:
"There are a lot of questions here about gay marriage and she is someone who's a major figure in the campaign. I think it's fair game,” Cahill stated. Thursday morning, Kerry campaign advisor Debra Deshong agreed with Cahill’s hateful rhetoric. “There’s nothing wrong with him bringing this up,” she said.
Actually, there is. John Kerry says he champions civil rights for gays. Yet, when you go to the Official John Kerry Website all you see are more vicious, devious direct attacks against President Bush and outrageous charges regarding his policies. On civil rights, John Kerry’s website states:
“It's clear what awaits our community if we don't defeat George Bush. Decreased funding for HIV/AIDS treatment & prevention. No workplace protections for gays and lesbians. Increase in hate crimes against gay and lesbian citizens.”
Is Senator Kerry implying that President Bush’s policies will lead to hate crimes against homosexuals in the workplace and trigger more hate crimes in general? Those are indefensible accusations. Moreover, John Kerry doesn’t mention President Bush’s 15 billion dollar AIDS package to Africa, an exorbitant sum considering we’re fighting a war. Finally, John Kerry attacks President Bush’s support for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, but Kerry himself opposes gay marriage. The point is, John Kerry is not willing to protect traditional marriage as an institution, a revealing statement that should worry conservative Democrats who may still be sitting on the election fence.
Today, Lynne Cheney indicated she was very disturbed by Kerry’s response in the debate: "The only thing I could conclude is that this is not a good man. And, of course, I'm speaking as a mom. And a pretty indignant one. What a cheap and tawdry political trick."
Senator Edwards’ wife Elizabeth responded on ABC radio:
"She's overreacted to this and treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion…I think that it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences. … It makes me really sad that that's Lynne's response."
More lies. The Cheneys have accepted their daughter’s lifestyle and her partner and that hardly indicates “shame.” As for overreacting…I wonder how Elizabeth Edwards would have felt had President Bush pulled such a cheap shot by exposing private details about her daughter’s life for millions to hear. Today, Senator Kerry issued a pathetic statement saying he was “trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue.” Right.
Last night, John Kerry showed his true colors when it comes to homosexuals. On national television before 50 million viewers and for political gain, he revealed that Mary Cheney is a lesbian to millions of people. That is a cruel, malicious ploy orchestrated to keep right-wing Christian voters, many of whom were not aware of Mary Cheney’s lifestyle, from the polls. After that performance and the follow-up by his Democratic operatives, John Kerry can no longer claim to respect the civil rights of homosexuals, because he can’t even respect the privacy of one. To say a person’s homosexuality is “fair game” exposes the Democrats as scheming operators who will go for the jugular without regard for whom they hurt. If I were gay, I’d be livid.
Fox News analysts Dick Morris and Bill Kristol called Senator Kerry’s comment “disgusting,” and “unbelievable.” Fox panelist Mort Kondracke called it a “low blow.” Bill Kristol wondered if Senator Kerry would apologize.
Yeah. About as fast as Dan Rather apologized to the Bush family for airing phony documents about his National Guard record.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Bonnie Chernin Rogoff
