Friday, October 15, 2004
Double Standards And More Hypocrisy
Can anyone in the so-called liberal media or right wing punditry explain to me how these comments:
In an interview with SIRUS satellite radio, the Internet's Drudge Report said Wednesday, [Republican Senate hopeful Alan] Keyes called Mary Cheney "a 'selfish hedonist' because she is a lesbian."Are worse than these:
Keyes said: "The essence of ... family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principal excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism."
Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney "is a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That goes by definition. Of course she is."
KERRY: We're all God's children, Bob. 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.Can anyone make that case? "Selfish hedonist" has got to be worse than one of "God's children" doesn't it? Why wasn't the liberal media all over that one with shock and awe? And where was the "angry father" Dick Cheney then? Where was Lynne's outrage and accusations? Nowhere to be found. Not a whiff of a defense for their daughter. And how did Mary's sibling respond to Keyes' comments:
Liz Cheney, Mary's sister, refused to comment Wednesday during an interview on CNN.One more update to this story, from Andrew Sullivan:
Gary Bauer has long denied he's anti-gay, or catering to anti-gay prejudice. But this morning he came clean, in referring to Kerry's mentioning Mary Cheney's lesbianism:Yup. Andy's got it.
"I think it is part of a strategy to suppress traditional-values voters, to knock 1 or 2 percent off in some rural areas by causing people to turn on the president."Think about that for a minute. Bauer believes that his core supporters would be likely to "turn" on the president just because the vice-president's daughter is a lesbian. Notice that there's no indication of homosexual "acts", just a revulsion at Mary Cheney's simple identity as a lesbian. This is their base. This is why they're worried. Some of the subtler arguments I've heard overnight say the following: it's not that homosexuality is wrong; it's just that many people believe that and Kerry therefore exploited their homophobia to gain a point. I don't buy it, but let's assume the worst in Kerry's motives for the sake of argument. What these emailers are saying is that Kerry should hedge what he says in order to cater to the homophobia of Bush's base. Why on earth should he? The truth here is obvious: Bush and Cheney are closet tolerants. They have no problem with gay people personally; but they use hostility to gay people for political purposes, even if it means attacking members of their own families. What they are currently objecting to is the fact that their hypocrisy has been exposed. To which the only answer is: if you don't want to be exposed as a hypocrite, don't be one. [emphasis added]
