Day: May 2, 2006

Cheney’s Gay Daughter Is ‘Surprised’ People Think Her Homophobic Parents Are ‘Loving’

Jon Ponder

The Drudge Report (available on the Internets) has been privy to a yet-to-be-published article on Vice President Dick Cheney’s family from Vanity Fair:

It is surprising they don’t hate you, Mary. It’s even more surprising that you don’t hate them.

In her new memoir, “Now It’s My Turn,” Mary Cheney writes that when she told her parents she was gay, the first words out of her father’s mouth “were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear: ‘You’re my daughter, and I love you, and I just want you to be happy.’”

“…Unfortunately, however, it is in my political interests to crush the hopes of all your kind.”

Vanity Fair editor Todd Purdum reports that Mary Cheney tells her story in a voice very much like her father’s, and that she came out to her parents when she was a junior in high school, on a day when, after breaking up with her first girlfriend, she skipped school, ran a red light, and crashed the family car. Cheney writes that her mother hugged her, but then burst into tears, worried that she would face a life of pain and prejudice…

Riiiggght, Mary. That’s why she was crying. She wasn’t dying inside at the humiliating prospect of facing her Republican friends when they learned that her daughter had chosen to be gay. No, I’m sure it was all about you.

[Mary] also says that one common reaction from people who have read the manuscript of her book is “‘Wow, you guys really have this close-knit, loving family,’ and it always strikes me as ‘Yeah, of course we do.’ It was very surprising to me that people would think we didn’t.”

I’m surprised you’re surprised, Mary. Your parents have a predilection for homophobia that normal loving parents would not have. Your mother has been a shrill opponent of gay rights. Your father would not be vice president today without the votes of homophobes in Ohio who turned out in droves to vote for a ban on gay marriage that was placed on the ballot in a cynical move by your father’s supporters to gin up support among the bigots and yahoos.

It is surprising they don’t hate you, Mary. It’s even more surprising that you don’t hate them.

Pew: Even Evangelicals Sick of Bush

Buck Banks

Bible-rousers: As if it weren’t already bad enough for the Worst President Ever, white Protestant evangelicals — who helped George Bush take the White House — are joining the rest of us in giving a big thumbs down for the prez’ performance, according to recent analysis by the Pew Research Center.

As Bush’s job approval rating continues to set new low records, Republicans are beginning to worry about the weakened president’s impact on his party’s performance in the fall mid-terms. And without the evangelicals’ support Bush’s slump bodes ill for the Repugs’ prospects this fall.

‘I am tired of all the problems associated with the Bush administration.’
— 45 percent of evangelical Christians

Pew finds that while a majority of white evangelical Protestants still support the president, significantly fewer approve of his performance in office now (55 percent approve, 38 percent disapprove) than at the start of his second term when 72 percent approved and only 22 percent disapproved.

Since the beginning of his second term in office, Bush’s approval rating has declined as much among white evangelicals as among the public as a whole. His personal ratings among evangelicals are more negative than ever before — 35 percent now have an unfavorable view of Bush, compared with 21 percent of registered evangelical voters in October 2004. And 45 percent of evangelicals agreed with the statement that “I am tired of all the problems associated with the Bush administration.”

Pew found little indication that evangelicals are likely to abandon the Republican Party — after all, who else are they going to vote for? Catholic John Kerry!?

No, white Protestant evangelicals might be disappointed in George Bush’s performance, but they are going to stick with the party that supports school vouchers, prayer in school, teaching creationism and taking away a woman’s right to choose. What option do they have?

But maybe, just maybe they won’t be so damned fervently Republican in the midterms. Hmmm, what would Jesus do?

Polls: More New Lows For Bush

Jon Ponder

Everybody hates Bush now except for two-thirds of Republicans. Their delusional faith in this incompetent aristocrat is more dangerous to our national security than al Qaeda.

CBS Poll:

Only 33 percent approve of his job performance, Mr. Bush’s lowest approval rating yet in CBS News polls. A majority – 58 percent of those polled – say they disapprove of the president. Mr. Bush appears to be losing support from his own party. His approval rating among Republicans has dropped to 68 percent.

USA Today/Gallup:

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday found Bush’s approval rating at 34 percent, two points under his previous low. He also received the lowest ratings of his presidency on his handling of the economy, energy and foreign affairs. He tied his previous low on Iraq: 32 percent.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The function of the press is to explore and investigate events, inform the people what is going on, and to expose the harmful as well as the good influences at work. There is no higher function performed under our constitutional regime …. A reporter is no better than his source of information. Unless he has a privilege to withold the identity of his source, he will be the victim of governmental intrigue or aggression. If he can be summoned to testify in secret before a grand jury, his sources will dry up and the attempted exposure, the effort to enlighten the public, will be ended.

The intrusion of government into this doman is symptomatic of the disease of this society. As the years pass, the power of government becomes more and more pervasive. It is power to suffocate both people and causes. Those in power, whatever their politics, want only to perpetuate it. Now that the forces of the law and the tradition that has protected the press are broken down, the people are the victims. The First Amendment, as I read it, was designed precisely to prevent that tragedy.

— William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Impeachment Petitions Delivered to Hastert

Buck Banks

Signed, sealed, delivered: At 9 a.m. yesterday, May 1, aka “Mission Accomplished Day,” Ellen Tenney of Rockingham, Vermont, presented Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert with petitions from three towns in Vermont calling for the impeachment of George Bush. The towns each passed resolutions to send the petitions.

These are the first of what organizers are hoping will be many petitions submitted by towns, cities and possibly states across the nation to Congress. Organizers say they are presented under the guidelines of Jefferson’s Manual, Section 603, and likely will be referred to a House committee — probably the Judiciary — for consideration.

Similar resolutions have now been passed by at least 13 cities and towns, and have been introduced in three state legislatures, with more expected this week.

Information on this procedure and a list of cities and states where resolutions have been introduced or passed can be found here.

Citizens Impeachment Commission

After Downing Street Coalition