October 15, 2004 - There is a fellow in our rural community whose services are in always in demand.  He drives a truck with a big tank welded on the back.  It is painted a shocking pink hue to catch attention.  On the sides of the tank in bold contrasting letters are the words, “MISTER CESSPOOL.  That is all the advertising that he need do.

The Bush-Cheney campaign is sounding the hunting horns and set the pack on the prey and the chase is on in full hue and cry.  They have found an issue that does not involve the conduct of the war in Iraq, disappointed workers, health care, social security or any other question of national policy.  They discovered Mary Cheney and her sexuality and since last Presidential debate have been flogging John Kerry with it.

 Her mother, Lynn Cheney, rose in righteous indignation because the Senator referred to Mary in a response to the question of whether homosexuality was a choice.  Kerry said that if she was asked that question the Vice President’s daughter would probably respond that she was living the life that she was born to lead.  The President, to whom the question was first addressed, had said that he did not know and then launched into a second round of bashing the idea of gay marriage.  Delighted Republicans are acting as though Senator Kerry had grasped a third rail in referring to Mary Cheney’s sexuality.

 Mary Cheney’s openly expressed sexuality did not used to be off limits.  At 2001 the Bush-Cheney Inaugural Ms. Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, were prominently seated with the Cheney family.  The festivities included a breakfast honoring The Republican Unity Coalition, a gay and lesbian political action group.  Host Wyoming’s retired Senator Alan Simpson is quoted by a New York Times article as having invoked Mary Cheney, the daughter of the vice president, who attended the inauguration with her partner. Mr. Simpson said that after Ms. Cheney said she was a lesbian, her father, Dick Cheney, "protected and loved her as his very special, special daughter." http://www.republicanunity.com/artcl/nyt.htm 

 Ms. Cheney’s sexuality was not forbidden territory when her father, distancing from the President’s  Anti Gay Marriage proposal to amend the Constitution referred to her himself, explaining his position that all people should be free to live their lives but the President makes the policy for the Administration.  It did not please the fundamentalist homophobic base when he said it in Iowa.  The fundamentalists’ comfort level wasn’t raised when Cheney repeated the statement during the Vice-Presidential debate a few days later. 

 Lynn Cheney now believes that references to her daughter’s sexual preference and her open expression of it are “cheap and tawdry politics” even when spoken in a respectful and supportive context.  That wasn’t her position when she put her daughter and Heather Poe on public display in January 2001.  That wasn’t her position when Alan Simpson used Mary to solidify support from Republicans who happen to be gay.  It wasn’t even her position two weeks ago when her husband used their daughter to soften the Administration’s image as kowtowing to homophobic extremists on the political Right.  It only became her position when Senator Kerry’s appeal on the issues began to pull him ahead in key battleground states and the base of the Bush-Cheney house of cards began to erode.

 In these closing desperate days of the campaign we can look for more and more personal attacks and less and less discussion of the issues.  You can look for the Bush-Cheney ticket to fling mud and toss slime to avoid answering why it is that they want to ship your jobs overseas and your kids to Iraq.  The bright spot is that Mr. Cesspool’s business is secure and demand for his unique service is high – at least until November 2^nd.