Day: July 9, 2006

Mary Cheney’s Book: ‘What a Waste’

Jon Ponder
Cheney’s book sold fewer than 6,000 copies in its first month.

The New York Times has a review of “Now It’s My Turn,” by the vice president’s daughter, Mary Cheney:

Her book is neither a manifesto of personal liberation nor an analysis of the gay marriage wars, but a buttoned-up account of a life spent barnstorming for Republicans.

Apparently, Mary is not into gay pride:

[She] describes hissing a furious expletive at the TV when Senator John Kerry referred to her as a “lesbian” in the third 2004 presidential debate (she prefers referring at arm’s length to “my sexual orientation,” as if it were an intransigent military position, perhaps, or a pesky shadow she just can’t shake). She was angry, among other reasons, she writes, because “he had used the word ‘lesbian,’ instead of the more common and politically neutral term ‘gay.’ ”

When exactly did the word “lesbian” become a scathing insult, alongside that other once-glorious, classically derived seven-letter L-word: liberal?

She’s the type of gal who’d rather go along to get along:

Cheney acknowledges that the president’s position on gay marriage gives her “a knot in the pit of my stomach,” so what in the name of Rita Mae Brown stopped her from confronting him? Timidity? Deference? Or her avowed desire to “maintain a low profile” (which raises the question: why write this book at all)? Certainly it is not her God-given responsibility, as a Republican operative who happens to be gay, to be an advocate for gay and lesbian issues. But — with apologies to Dan Quayle and the United Negro College Fund — what a waste.

A waste of good trees, too. The book sold fewer than 6,000 copies in its first month, despite a publicty barrage highlighted by a tour of the talk shows by Cheney herself.

Some people are born to greatness while others achieve greatness. And then there are people like Mary Cheney who pass up a chance at greatness because of self-esteem issues emanating from internalized homophobia.

‘Last Throes’ Insurgents Are Now Shooting Unarmed People in Cold Blood on Baghdad Streets

Jon Ponder

In George Bush’s Iraq, Shiites are killing Sunnis on sight:

Masked Shiite gunmen stopped cars in western Baghdad Sunday and grabbed people off the streets, singling out the Sunni Arabs among them and killing at least 37, police said.

The attack in the Jihad neighborhood apparently was retaliation for the car bombing of a local Shiite mosque the night before.

I guess they didn’t get the memo from the vice president’s office informing them that they are in their last throes.

GOP Intel Chair Warned Bush about Keeping Secrets from Congress

Jon Ponder

Lapdog shows teeth: In late May, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan) sent a letter to President Bush warning him about keeping government spy operations secret from the Congress:

In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.

The letter from [Hoekstra] did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.

But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department’s tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.

Recently, after the harsh criticism from Mr. Hoekstra, intelligence officials have appeared at two closed committee briefings to answer questions from the chairman and other members. The briefings appear to have eased but not erased the concerns of Mr. Hoekstra and other lawmakers about whether the administration is sharing information on all of its intelligence operations.

This begs a question:

Question: does Hoekstra really want to oversee what the Administration is doing or is he distancing himself from the nastiness that will eventually come out?

The Times posted a PDF of the letter here.