Dick Cheney’s already a grandfather. There are five young impressionable minds he’s molding; let that one settle in. (And all those family hunting trips? Hopefully the grandkids get the good body armor.) Now a sixth is on the way, this one born of his lesbian daughter Mary and her partner, Heather Poe. Cheney has hardly been the bragging granddad to date, but yesterday he went public with his pride as he announced that the baby is a boy.
Cheney told ABC Radio, “I’m looking forward to the arrival of a new grandson.” He said that the baby was due next month (but didn’t say whether his nursery is filled with purple Teletubbies or is swathed with a rainbow).
He also didn’t say that he supports the right of said grandson’s parents to be happily married. The bastard.
“I think each state ought to have the capacity to decide how they want to handle those issues . . . And I obviously think it’s important for us as a society to be tolerant and respectful of whatever arrangements people enter into.”
Cheney’s punt to the states is telling. His daughter and her partner live in Virginia, where in November voters approved a sweeping amendment banning gay marriage (and stripping all unmarried couples of many rights). So Poe will have no legal relationship to the child she and Mary are bringing into the world together — how would Dick feel about this one if Poe were the one carrying the baby?
But in some ways, this was a pretty big step for the guy. Remember back in January when Wolf Blitzer asked him about the impending arrival of his grandchild? Cheney warmly replied that the topic was “out of line.”
