But where's Mary?

Liz Cheney, Dick and Lynne's straight daughter (yes, that's a gratuitous reference to her presumed sexuality) joins the family smearfest...

ZAHN: Back to the issue of last night's exchange during the debate where John Kerry was asked a very specific question about whether homosexuality is a choice. Were you offended by the fact that he mentioned your sister

CHENEY: I was offended.

ZAHN: And tell me why.

CHENEY: I think that it was out of bounds.

ZAHN: Why?

CHENEY: For Senator Kerry to exploit the child of his opponent to make political point on his own, for his own political gain. And I have to say I think that I, like many Americans all across this country today, are wondering what kind of a man would do that.

ZAHN: Was your sister offended?

CHENEY: It was a very offensive thing for him to do, yes.

ZAHN: Did you talk to her about it?

CHENEY: It was very offensive. I think I'll just leave it there. I think people can make their own judgment about what he said.

Yes we can. And we can make our own judgements about what Dick, Lynne and Liz have said. But we may never know what Mary says, because she's not talking and they, apparently, aren't talking to her.

You know, I imagine Mary is offended. Deeply hurt, even.

But not by anything John Kerry had to say.

I'd just as soon see this story disappear, but I'm still outraged by the cheap political exploitation the Cheney family is subjecting their daughter and sister to. I'm trying to imagine how my own out lesbian daughter would react if I treated a respectful reference to her orientation sound like a personal disgrace. I don't think I could face her, really.

So I'm not surprised, really, that Mary Cheney has maintained silence on the subject. When your family treats you abysmally in the national media, it's hardly a comfortable subject.

As Ellen Andersen, an assistant professor of political science at Indiana University-Purdue University, told the LA Times...

"This [controversy] is predicated on the fact that there are a number of Americans that think homosexuality is shameful."

Dave Cullen writes in Salon...

Let's get one thing straight. It is not an insult to call a proudly public lesbian a lesbian. It's an insult to gasp when someone calls her a lesbian. That's how all the gays I have spoken to the past 24 hours perceived the press response. You're embarrassed for us. And it's infuriating.

It's more than that when the gasp comes from your family, I think. It's a betrayal. It's humiliating. It's deeply disappointing. It's unconscionable. It...well, you get the point. And Cullen makes it more graphically in his close.

I doubt very much that Mary Cheney gives a rat's ass if some church lady in Idaho knows she's gay. But her mother cringing at the church lady knowing -- that's gotta hurt like hell.

I know that gay bashing is, sadly, a necessary element of the BC04 effort to shore up their base. But bashing a member of your own family? Isn't anything beyond the pale for these people?


Update: Digby posts eloquently (as usual) along the same line, concluding...

At some point, maybe not until they are on their deathbeds, they will have to face the fact that they betrayed their beloved daughter countless times by refusing to use their power for good and stand up for what they knew in their hearts to be right. It may not be on their gravestone, but that will be their true epitaph.