Gay marriage support from the old GOP guard? Dick and Lynne Cheney, the former Vice President and his wife, told Barbara Walter on “The View” today that they “don’t have any problem with” gay marriage. Lynne Cheney talked about her daughter Mary, who is a lesbian, and the wonderful grandchildren she now has.
The former Vice President took a bit of a more “states rights” tack on the marriage equality issue, saying of his daughter and her long-term partner, “whatever Mary and Heather decide to do is up to Mary and Heather.”
Joy Behar was determined to get more specific with the Cheneys too, and prodded them to come out more in full support of full same-sex marriage equality. While we didn’t quite get it, we got close.
This is not the first time the Cheneys have come out in support of marriage equality. In 2009, speaking almost the exact same words as he said today, Cheney said,
“I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don’t support. I do believe that the historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis. … But I don’t have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that.”
Reportedly, Cheney (along with Laura Bush) was against the George W. Bush re-election campaign of 2004’s focus on same-sex marriage, propagated by now openly-gay GOP stewart Ken Mehlman.
It’s nice to see that the old guard has come around. Pity they trained their replacements so well.
Lastly, certainly not to reject an ally, but it would be irresponsible to not note that Cheney is perceived by some as a war criminal and some have posited that his latest book tour is an attempt to stay out of jail.
What’s your take?