[Mb-civic] Outrage That Rings False

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

 Outrage That Rings False
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37009-2004Oct15.html

 By Hilary Rosen

    Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush-Cheney
    campaign, said Thursday that John Kerry will pay a heavy political
    price for what he did. Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, said,
    "This is a bad man." 

 The crime? John Kerry in the final presidential debate suggested that we
 are all God's children and used Mary Cheney as an example of a healthy
 gay person loved by her family.

  The response from the Cheneys and the Bush campaign has been blatantly
  political. In fact, it is they who are using Mary Cheney -- using her
  now to score points against Kerry and John Edwards over an issue on
  which they themselves are guilty of the wronggs that Kerry and Edwards
  are fighting against. Even after almost 30 years in Washington, I am
  surprised by the overwhelming hypocrisy and meanness of the Bush
  reelection campaign.

 Let's review the facts. Before the election season, this administration
 opposed every initiative to offer equality for gay men and lesbians.
 Indeed, it has gone  out of its way to be punitive, with such actions as
 the Office of Personnel Management's announcement that the federal
 government has no intention of honoring the Clinton administration's
 order to add sexual orientation to anti-discrimination rules in the
 federal government.

  After the debate, the vice president said of John Kerry: "This is a man
  who will say anything and do anything to get elected." Many people
  thought the same thing about Dick Cheney and President Bush on Feb. 24.
  That was the day the president announced to the country that
  heterosexual marriages are in trouble because gay people might someday
  have such a right in a few states. The crisis was so dire that he
  implored Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to permanently take
  away any rights gay men and lesbians might have to equal access to
  government benefits of marriage.

  The Republican leaderships in both houses of Congress brought this
  amendment to the floor. Anyone watching the debate would cringe at the
  dehumanizing and painful things said by Republican sponsors of the
  proposal about gay people. 

 All of the Cheneys have sat back as senators and members of Congress who
 stood up for their position against the constitutional amendment were 
 attacked in campaigns across the country. In Texas, North Dakota, South
 Carolina, Oklahoma, North Carolina and elsewhere, Republican candidates
 are using the gay issue against Democrats who have done nothing more than
 vote to protect the notion of fairness and equality in our Constitution.

 Where is the outrage of Dick and Lynne Cheney over this?

  In August, at a town meeting, the vice president was asked to speak from
  the heart about gay marriage. He did. He said he was against the
  constitutional amendment. And he expressed love for his daughter. The
  country was impressed. 

 I think the record is pretty clear that fair-minded political leaders
 didn't talk publicly about Mary Cheney until her father did. All of a
 sudden it was clear to John Kerry and John Edwards that if the Bush
 campaign tried to attack them on the gay marriage issue, they should just
 respond by saying they had the same position on this issue as Dick
 Cheney. That is certainly the advice I gave them. How dare the president
 criticize  Kerry, as he did again the other night, for taking the same
 position as Dick Cheney? And we know that anti-gay messages are being
 promoted in many districts around the country to get out the evangelical
 vote for President Bush on Election Day. The silent but admirable Mary
 Cheney has remained a loyal daughter and foot soldier in this homophobic
 campaign.

 I feel sorry for her -- sorry that she seems to now be a pawn in this
 race. But the perpetrator is not  Kerry. This issue is in the campaign
 becausse  Bush sought political advantage by using it all year. This
 week's outrage rings so false it makes my ears hurt.

 The writer is former chairman and chief executive of the Recording
 Industry Association of America and a volunteer for gay rights causes.

---


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