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**OEMCHEAPSOFTDOWNLOAD** · 12-08-2006, 08:17 PM

Andrew Sullivan has been writing about this for the past many days ...

Lopez on Cheney

08 Dec 2006 11:33 am

Theocon Kathryn-Jean Lopez writes the following about Mary Cheney:
Unless Mary Cheney asks to be part of a political debate about this, there is no need to have a public discussion about her life. The New York Times raises the question of how/who, etc. That just seems outrageous to me. She is not the vice president. She is not the president. That's just uncalled for from anyone in the media/commentariat. I could be wrong but the media/commentators seem to be making it — Mary Cheney's pregnancy — a political issue, not the Cheneys.Yes, I think fatherhood is crucial and am opposed to redefining marriage and all the rest. And my "deafening silence" on the Mary Cheney "issue" (what nonsense) doesn't change that. But unless Mary Cheney asks to be a spokeswoman on this issue, folks ought to leave her alone.
It's a fascinating post, as is the self-imposed silence at the Corner and elsewhere on the social right. So let's unpack it, shall we? Lopez frames the issue as an egregious media seeking who the father is. I see very, very little of this, since almost everyone assumes it's an anonymous sperm donor. Then the following:Yes, I think fatherhood is crucial and am opposed to redefining marriage and all the rest. And my "deafening silence" on the Mary Cheney "issue" (what nonsense) doesn't change that.But this is absurd. Lopez aggressively favors all efforts to strip the Cheney grandchild of two mothers. Lopez has politicized this family's personal life, and attacked it viciously. Lopez supported the Virginia state constitutional amendment that will mean that the Cheney grandchild will only ever have one secure parent. Lopez favors adding this terrible insecurity to the Cheney-Poe child's life. And she wants it not to be personal. Sorry, but it is personal.

National Review institutionally believes that what Cheney's family is doing is evil. Some have the integrity to keep saying so even when their actual impact on an actual human being they actually care about is at stake. Lopez, Podhoretz and Goldberg do not have that much integrity. Remember: David Frum once threatened to make Mary Cheney a criminal for her committed relationship of a decade and a half. Remember also: these people wanted to declare this family illegitimate in the very Constitution of the United States, declaring that one group of Americans do not belong in their own country.

And now they find themselves demonizing and marginalizing and discriminating against one of their own. Stupid poetic justice, as Homer Simpson would say.

So what do they do? They are forced to be silent, or to blame others for bringing it up. Their double standards and intellectual dishonesty are now up there in neon lights. Where is Stanley "Slippery Slope" Kurtz? Cat got your tongue? Thousands of words to demonize abstract others. Sudden silence when he has to cast out one of his own. These people do not even have the courage of their own prejudices.

As for Mary Cheney not seeking to make this a political issue, that is not true. In her book, Cheney quite clearly takes a stand. She opposes the federal constitutional amendment; and she opposes the amendment because it removes the woman she loves and is mothering a child with from the realm of legality, decency and humanity. Kathryn-Jean Lopez has spent the past several years directly attacking the Cheney family. She just doesn't have the integrity to continue the attack when its real nature is fully revealed.

Copyright © 2006 Time Inc.

12-08-2006, 08:17 PM	#2
OEMCHEAPSOFTDOWNLOAD Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 336 Senior Member	*Andrew Sullivan* *has been writing about this for the past many days ...* Lopez on Cheney 08 Dec 2006 11:33 am Theocon Kathryn-Jean Lopez writes the following about Mary Cheney: Unless Mary Cheney asks to be part of a political debate about this, there is no need to have a public discussion about her life. The New York Times raises the question of how/who, etc. That just seems outrageous to me. She is not the vice president. She is not the president. That's just uncalled for from anyone in the media/commentariat. I could be wrong but the media/commentators seem to be making it — Mary Cheney's pregnancy — a political issue, not the Cheneys.Yes, I think fatherhood is crucial and am opposed to redefining marriage and all the rest. And my "deafening silence" on the Mary Cheney "issue" (what nonsense) doesn't change that. But unless Mary Cheney asks to be a spokeswoman on this issue, folks ought to leave her alone. It's a fascinating post, as is the self-imposed silence at the Corner and elsewhere on the social right. So let's unpack it, shall we? Lopez frames the issue as an egregious media seeking who the father is. I see very, very little of this, since almost everyone assumes it's an anonymous sperm donor. Then the following:Yes, I think fatherhood is crucial and am opposed to redefining marriage and all the rest. And my "deafening silence" on the Mary Cheney "issue" (what nonsense) doesn't change that.But this is absurd. Lopez aggressively favors all efforts to strip the Cheney grandchild of two mothers. Lopez has politicized this family's personal life, and attacked it viciously. Lopez supported the Virginia state constitutional amendment that will mean that the Cheney grandchild will only ever have one secure parent. Lopez favors adding this terrible insecurity to the Cheney-Poe child's life. And she wants it not to be personal. Sorry, but it is personal. National Review institutionally believes that what Cheney's family is doing is evil. Some have the integrity to keep saying so even when their actual impact on an actual human being they actually care about is at stake. Lopez, Podhoretz and Goldberg do not have that much integrity. Remember: David Frum once threatened to make Mary Cheney a criminal for her committed relationship of a decade and a half. Remember also: these people wanted to declare this family illegitimate in the very Constitution of the United States, declaring that one group of Americans do not belong in their own country. And now they find themselves demonizing and marginalizing and discriminating against one of their own. Stupid poetic justice, as Homer Simpson would say. So what do they do? They are forced to be silent, or to blame others for bringing it up. Their double standards and intellectual dishonesty are now up there in neon lights. Where is Stanley "Slippery Slope" Kurtz? Cat got your tongue? Thousands of words to demonize abstract others. Sudden silence when he has to cast out one of his own. These people do not even have the courage of their own prejudices. As for Mary Cheney not seeking to make this a political issue, that is not true. In her book, Cheney quite clearly takes a stand. She opposes the federal constitutional amendment; and she opposes the amendment because it removes the woman she loves and is mothering a child with from the realm of legality, decency and humanity. Kathryn-Jean Lopez has spent the past several years directly attacking the Cheney family. She just doesn't have the integrity to continue the attack when its real nature is fully revealed. Copyright © 2006 Time Inc.
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