More about Mary.

It seems pretty obvious from the chatter on the Sunday shows that the wingers are going to spin the Mary Cheney story for all it's worth, but it just doesn't strike me as being worth all that much to them. It's not like they're going to bring over a substantial portion of the gay and lesbian vote by feigning outrage for poor Mary, and Kerry's not going to win over much of the homophobe vote by using her to support his position on the nature v. nurture question. I think Ruy Teixeira comes closest to the truth...

... it doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you hypothesize that BC04 don't quite know what to do and figure anything that generates a campaign story that isn't about jobs, health care or Iraq is a net plus. But this kind of campaigning is a sign of weakness...

It's probably also a sign they're pretty worried the Kerry-is-a-Massachusetts-liberal strategy won't work. And they should be.

...and as Jerome points out at MyDD, whatever people think about Kerry's comments, it doesn't seem to have much effect on their Presidential decision...

That's a 10% lead by Kerry in the battleground states-- Wow! (and yes, this was in the same poll that showed 2/3rds didn't like Kerry's remarks about Mary Cheney. Of course the Republicans didn't like it, as it exposed their shadow-projections of hate onto a real person and made them deal with the hypocrisy. This carrys little to no political fallout, with GOP backlash just as likely...).

I do wish the wingers would drop it, but not because I think it cuts either way in the Presidential race. It's just so damn sad to watch.

I tend to agree with Kerry-blogger and Upper Left commenter Mark from Iowa that "Lynne Cheney is the black widow of American politics," but I'm still struck by the family tragedy that this story has exposed. It seems like Dick is a lot more comfortable with his daughter's orientation than Lynne is. I suppose that's largely because while Lynne spends more time in the cultural conservative mileu, Dick is by an large an adherent of the more traditional profiteering war-monger school of Republicanism.

In either event, their exploitation of their daughter by their declarations of shame and dismay over a simple and respectful observation of her sexual orientation is at once the saddest and the most infuriating element of the whole story.

Maybe Norbizness offers the best resolution for the entire mess...

"I will agree that John Kerry should not have mentioned Mary Cheney's name in the debate if you'll agree that today's weird shriek-fest by Lynne Cheney is one part motivated by motherly concern and 200 parts motivated by the realization that her meal ticket to a plush stay in the Vice Presidential mansion and his varying levels of concern about Osama bin Laden just got beat for the third straight debate."

(minor edit to compensate for my inability to keep the Cheney's...ahem...straight. Thanks Mark...)