BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Monday, October 18, 2004
THE "L" WORD. It's
not "liberal"! Like most sane observers, I've been puzzled and
disheartened by the apparent success the Bush-Cheney campaign is
having over the issue of John Kerry's mentioning Dick and Lynne
Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary.
I thought Kerry's invocation of the
Cheneys during last week's debate was awkward and perhaps
unnecessary; John Edwards handled it better in his debate with Dick
Cheney, probably because he was talking to Dad, not
about him. But never would I have dreamed that the Republicans
could score points by referring to Kerry's "cheap and tawdry
political trick," as noted lesbian-romance novelist Lynne Cheney
did last week.
Now Paul Johnson, of 365Gay.com,
reports that the furious Republican response may be have been the
brainchild of M-Che herself. Johnson writes:
Sources close to the
Bush-Cheney campaign tell 365Gay.com that the idea came up in a
telephone call between Mary and her parents immediately after the
presidential debate Wednesday night.
The younger Cheney, who serves
as a backroom advisor to her father, suggested that she would
continue to be a "issue" for Democrats unless something was done
to stop it immediately.
If Johnson is right, then the
temptation is to call this perhaps the ultimate in self-loathing, but
I'm not going to go there. Even though she used to work as the
liaison to the gay-and-lesbian community for Coors, and even though
she has a prominent position in her father's campaign, Mary Cheney is
known to value her privacy. She may have genuinely been getting sick
and tired of hearing the Democrats drop her name every time the issue
of same-sex marriage came up. Still, her parents' rhetoric suggests
they are still not comfortable with their daughter's sexual
orientation.
What's truly weird about this is
that the Cheneys and other Republicans have gotten away with
practically accusing Kerry of outing a openly lesbian adult who is
also a public figure. The Democrats must feel like the Red Sox
getting flogged by the Yankees once again: How do they do it?
Adam Nagourney has an idea
in today's New York Times:
In Mr. Kerry's mind, he
was stating a well-known fact. Ms. Cheney is openly gay, and her
father mentioned it at one of his rallies before the Republican
convention. More significant, calling someone a lesbian in this
era is hardly an insult in Mr. Kerry's mind, his advisers
said.
But to listen to conservative
radio shows, or to talk to voters since the debate, it is clear
that not everyone shares Mr. Kerry's view. Even some Democrats
said that many viewers thought either that Mr. Kerry was outing
Ms. Cheney, or that calling someone a lesbian was a schoolyard
insult, a bit of behavior that was unseemly for a presidential
candidate.
The Incomparable
One agrees,
writing:
Some of you still don't
understand why we've said that this comment was stupid. It was
stupid because John Kerry is running for president, and has to get
people to vote for him. And, however enlightened you may be about
this, the American electorate does not share your outlook. Almost
surely, Kerry is losing votes because of this ill-advised
comment.
In an election as close as this one
is likely to be, any little thing can make a difference. Four years
ago, Al Gore may very well have lost (well, not "lost," but you know
what I mean) because the media falsely and repeatedly quoted him as
saying he had "invented the Internet."
Wouldn't it be something if Kerry
loses because he said the word "lesbian"? Does anyone think it's even
remotely as important as the
deaths of 1101 American
troops in Iraq?
NOT SO SWIFT. Last Friday,
Media Log received intelligence that Ted Koppel had let swift-boat
liar John O'Neill run wild on Nightline the night before. I
did not have a chance to check it out, but Somerby, as usual, has
all
the ugly details.
posted at 11:53 AM |
6 comments
|
link
6 Comments:
Interesting how the Cheneys and the GOP jump on Kerry, but nothing about Alan Keyes' comments, which weren't so polite.
The whole "Mary Cheney" thing is just something for media types to talk about. Voters really don't care. They really do care more about the war in Iraq than about Kerry pointing out that Cheney's daughter is lesbian (a fact that had already been in the public discourse).
Hmmm. From my perusals of Google News, it seems to me the Cheney story is cycling out.
The obsession with polling remains, however. Democratic Underground had a poll from October 27, 2000 showing Bush ahead of Gore, 52% to 39%. And we all know how that came out.
The Republicans are still very worried because they know the Democrats tend to get a fairly large percentage of votes that never show up on the polling radar. Their internal polling accounts for that, I suspect. I'm guessing that's why they've pulled out of WA and OR, despite polls suggesting the race is very close in those states.
Don't you get it? It doesn't matter what a Democratic candidate says or - in Al Gore's case - doesn't say (he never said "I invented the Internet"). The Republic spin machine will latch onto anything, especially if the statement was awkwardly phrased, or they will twist the life out of a statement -- again, see Gore and the internet, or John O'Neil distortion about Kerry's killing of a Viet Cong soldier (a "teenager in a loin cloth," give me a break).
I thought Kerry's comment about Mary Cheney was appropriate in the context of the question he was asked about whether homosexuality was a choice. Frankly, it doesn't matter what he says or has said on any issue. Republican spin will distort it. Democrats across the board need to stop trying to explain that what they were really saying was said in the best of intentions. Rather that apologize about mentioning Mary Cheney's sexual orientation, Democrats should go after Republican politicians, big and small, who in speeches and publications continually pander to anti-homosexual prejudice.
It was a stupid comment that has nothing to do with the issues and Kerry will lose votes because of it. Mary Cheney as a lesbian is as relevant to the country as Alexandra Kerry at Cannes in a see through dress.
I still say Kerry shouldn't apologize because he really didn't do anything wrong. Mentioning the fact that Mary Cheney is a lesbian is wrong? When this is fairly common knowledge?
Too many liberals are far too willing to apologize for anything. It's weak and stupid to be suckered by pretended offense.
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
