BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again

Subject: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Wesley S
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 11:51 AM

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby in late spring, said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for the vice president.

But it seems like the reaction to the news has been mixed.

CNN story

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conservative leaders voiced dismay Wednesday at news that Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney, is pregnant, while a gay-rights group said the vice president faces "a lifetime of sleepless nights" for serving in an administration that has opposed recognition of same-sex couples.

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby in late spring, said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for the vice president.

"The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation" to the arrival of their sixth grandchild, McBride said.

Mary Cheney was an aide to her father during the 2004 campaign, and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL. She and Poe moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to the Cheney family.

Family Pride, which advocates on behalf of gay and lesbian families, noted that Virginia last month became one of 27 states with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

"Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child," said Family Pride executive director Jennifer Chrisler.

The couple "will quickly face the reality that no matter how loved their child will be. ... he or she will never have the same protections that other children born to heterosexual couples enjoy," Chrisler said. "Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children."

For years, Mary Cheney's openness about her sexual orientation had posed a dilemma for conservative activists who admire Dick Cheney's stance on many issues but consider homosexuality a sin.

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable."

"It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Crouse said there was no doubt that the news would, in conservatives' eyes, be damaging to the Bush administration, which already has been chided by some leaders on the right for what they felt was halfhearted commitment to anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights causes in this year's general election.

Carrie Gordon Earll, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family, expressed empathy for the Cheney family but depicted the pregnancy as unwise.

"Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn't mean it's a good idea," Earll said. "Love can't replace a mother and a father."

The vice president's office declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Mary Cheney's pregnancy.

The news was welcomed by the president of the largest national gay-rights group, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign.

"Mary and Heather's decision to have a child is an example that families in America come in all different shapes and sizes," he said. "The bottom line is that a family is made up of love and commitment."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 12:21 PM

Whatever. As long as the child is raised with love and affection and care, what does anything else matter?

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: EBarnacle
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 12:45 PM

Refer to the New York Times Magazine 2 weekends ago. there was an article about gay parenting and how the couple accomplish it, as well as the social effects of same.

Subject: BS: The Irony of Mary Cheney
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 04:36 PM

Mary Cheny, who is probably a lovely person, has stirred the ire of her father's political siders by announcing she is pregnant. She will raise the child with the hel[p of her long-time girlfriend and helpmeet. Unfortunately, because she lives in Virginia, there will be no marriage between the couple who are planning to raise the child. The right-wing pundits are all aghast about how bad this is, while the left wing press is heating up in their assertion that the care and love the two will provide for the child is the senior consideration and far better than a hetero family which meets the social norms but is deeply dysfunctional in other ways.

It has been hazarded by the Daily Press in New York that the timing of this announcement was chosen to defuse some of the public reaction to the recently released Iraq Report, but I wouldn't know about that.

I do think the harpy, preaching tone of the righies who condemn these two women for seeking to raise a well-loved child is extraordinarily uncompassionate, dictatorial, censorious and Grundy-esque, illiberal, opinionated and the stuff of dysfunctional busybodiness.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Amos
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 04:39 PM

My apologies -- I didn't see this thread, and started a second one on this topic.

Ironic that Mary's affections should stand so bravely against everything her father and his boss say he stands for.

A

---

Threads combined. -JC

Subject: RE: BS: The Irony of Mary Cheney
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 04:46 PM

My preference would be to raise a well-loved adoptive child. Some children come into this world desparately needing a father. You do not know which ones will have this dire need in advance. You can have twelve wonderful mothers and they won't be a father. Some children can do fine without them. But why take the chance when there are so many children to be adopted? I would hope the adoption laws are such that they could in Virginia. or wherever. I am not for single women period regardless of anything bringing fatherless children into the world. Again, they can adopt or take in foster children or have other options. If you have a child who needed a father you have done something awful I think. I am also not for excessive reproductive meddling anyway even by the most potentially wonderful parents. Play the hand you were dealt and there are ways to raise children other than by breeding. mg

Subject: RE: BS: The Irony of Mary Cheney
From: GUEST,MarkS
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 05:28 PM

Just leave them alone to get on with their lives in privacy. Loving or dysfunctional relationships will happen without regard to affective orientation. I wish them the best and hope everybody else will too.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 05:36 PM

Remember that in politics what you say does not necessarily reflect your beliefs and inner feelings. I'm sure Cheney loves his daughter and it is an indication of the conflict between politics and feelings that he did not disown her when she came out of the closet.

Unfortunately Mary Cheney will never know about the not having family health insurance because she is a member of the American Aristocracy. Her family's wealth will protect her and her baby. Too many gay couples do not have that protection.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:32 PM

GAWD speaks in many tongues! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 07:12 PM

I will never cease to marvel at the society which will condemn 2 intelligent, caring women or men ('married' or not)raising a child, while shrugging at the number of kids being 'raised' in dis-functional families by alcoholic, drug using men & women of limited capacity, just because they are 'technically' legally wed.

There oughta be a qualification exam before ANYONE is allowed to raise children....(well, I am half serious)

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 07:19 PM

Too bad they live in Virginia 'cause the laws here are quite Draconian... Heck, the 2 of them could raise this child together for the next 15 years and then one day Mary could wake up and say "Screw you, Heather" and boot Heather outta the home and Heather would have absolutely no rights to ever see the child again...

Welcome to Virginia....

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 07:22 PM

I'm more worried about the Cheney line marching on, relentless as the Uruk Hai.

Does he have any other kids?

If she's the only one and the last of the dynasty, what are the chances that she's just carrying out orders from on high.

There's no naughty step in the cheney family - you go straight to guantanamo bay!

Anyone remeber "V", the mini series?

Do you think this one'll be a lizard too?

Do you think she'll scream when she sees it and it sticks it's forked tongue out at her?

Heh heh ... (evil throaty chuckle)

BTW - who is the father?

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Peace
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 08:43 PM

Donald Rumsfeld? (Just guessin'.)

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: frogprince
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 09:00 PM

Very odd; not that often that a bonafide mutha becomes a grandfatha.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 12:18 AM

I read a really wicked bumper sticker today on a vehicle that had, amongst others, "Don't Mess with Texas Women" and "Why Not Kinky for Governor." The one in particular said "I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Barry Finn
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 01:57 AM

I'll be seeing my neice in a couple of weeks along with her steady beau for the hoildays. It'll be so nice to see her again & meet her fellow. Both of her mothers will flying in too. They gotta so proud of the great job they did in raising her. What a voice on her too, except she does Opera, still I love to hear her sing. Maybe I can get her to the Press Room. It still takes a village to raise a child, although some how the religious right can't bide the village mentality, to excepting I suppose.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 05:32 AM

I would kill myself if Dick Cheney was my grandfather.

in other words so what.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Amos
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 09:45 AM

BEtter you should killl your grandfather.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 11:46 AM

Oh leave off. It's just a pregnancy and a baby.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Scoville
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 03:47 PM

For whoever asked--Cheney has another daughter who has five kids. This is his sixth grandchild but this particular daughter's first baby.


I'm sick of all this "love can't replace a mother and father" garbage. A mother and father can't replace having two stable, functional people of any gender raising a kid. Heterosexual couple does not automatically equal better parents. I was lucky that I had an inconspicuous, "normal" family but I'd rather have had two moms or two dads or whatever than one of either that drank or cheated or slapped us around or just wasn't there.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 11:08 AM

Who cares splot about the silly old bag!

What is newsie, who stuffed her? or did she go A.I. as in Old Farmer Giles tippin er with his tickler?

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 06:16 PM

I lean to the right but what does that have to do with anything? I could care less what Mary Cheney or anyone else does as it is none of my business.

Always like what Jimmy Durante professed; "Why doesn't everyone leave everyone else the Hell alone?"

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 08:12 PM

There seem to be a lot of people expending a lot of energy as they protest that this topic means nothing to them.

One wonders why they bothered to OPEN the thread or comment at all. . .

Oh, yeah, it brings the attention back to THEM.

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 09:01 AM

when I was born, my two grandfathers and my grandmother were dead, so I had only one Granny that was still alive, and when I was very young she died as well.

Love

Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: bobad
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 07:50 PM

Dick Cheney's Google Searches

Subject: RE: BS: Dick Cheney to be a Grandpa - again
From: kendall
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 08:19 PM

Will they blame this on the democrats too?