Could Mary Cheney Be a Worse Parent Than George Bush?

I could not have less esteem for Dick and Lynne Cheney. The vice president gives a face to the evil bureaucrat and Mrs. Cheney is an ideological tool. On the other hand, there is no evidence they have been bad parents, and good reason to believe that their daughter Elizabeth has done a servicable job raising her kids, and that their other daughter Mary, who happens to be gay and pregnant, will do as well as most parents.

George and Laura Bush, on the other hand, have raised two girls, the twins Barbara and Jenna, who are widely regarded as drunken aristocratic flibbertigibbets.

And yet we live in a world where People Magazine asks the president, a below-average parent, and a man who was rather badly brought up himself, to assess what kind of parent Mary Cheney will be, because she is a lesbian.

The intent of the question was to draw Bush out on the topic of gay parenting, which is vehemently opposed by the Troglodytes and Talibanis who comprise his few remaining supporters. The president’s response was typically odd and sounded scripted:

“I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I’m happy for her.”

Bush often uses code words meant to appeal to the religious right, so maybe his use of the word “soul” was intentional. (Or maybe I’m over-thinking it and he was simply drunk.)

Loving a child is fundamental to parenting but what an odd construction. Anyone — an aunt or a godparent — can be a “loving soul” to a child, but parenting requires a lot more, not the least of which is providing discipline. If all you do is love them, they’ll grow up to be spoiled aristocratic flibbertigibbets — or even the Worst President Ever.

Later, pushing his daily broom after the president’s elephant parade, White House spokesman Tony Snow clarified that by “soul,” the president meant “parent”:

“He believes that Mary Cheney’s child will, in fact, have loving parents.”

There are worse kids than Barbara and Jenna. Sure, they were arrested for under-age drinking and since attaining majority have regularly made fools of themselves in drinking establishments worldwide but they are not axe murderers. My armchair psychiatric analysis is, their parents loved them too much to discipiline them.

Still, I’ll bet Mary Cheney and her unmarried spouse Heather Poe will raise a child who is at least as sensible as the Bush girls.

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