MARY CHENEY--BLESS HER HEART--IS NOW HISTORY

Huge mistakes. This will die. Mary Beth Cahill's "Mary Cheney is fair game" was a disaster. She should never appear in public. But there's some hypocrisy going on here that deserves some notice. I think Kerry was trying to say in response to the question (don't forget the context) "Is homosexuality a choice?",

Look, everyone knows or has a family member who has wrestled with this thing. Most people want to conform. But some realize at some point, many after a horrendous struggle, that they just aren't made heterosexual. Others, who love them, endure an intense journey of discovery of their own, which sometimes reorders their lives in unimagined ways. Even the Vice President's daughter would tell you, I think, that she is just trying to be what she was born to be.

I think that's what Kerry was trying to say. He is so smart, I just don't believe he'd think he was "outing" Mary Cheney, who is very generally known as a lesbian.

But I do think the Cheneys' (Lynne and Dick) reaction to that statement is, if not a very calculated political counter-move, then by default an overreaction prompted by a very defensive, though painfully and obviously loving, (but perhaps they think deservedly?) attitude that expects heaps of shame and pity heaped upon their family.

I was not happy when Kerry called out Mary Cheney's name last night because I expected this kind of reaction. Now that I've heard it, I suspect the best response would be none further. Let it expire with no further accelerant.