It's hard to understand what the audience for openly lesbian vice-presidential daughter Mary Cheney's Now It's My Turn is, given that support for lesbian and gay equality is somewhat scarce among the right wing supporters of her father, and many in the lesbian and gay community view her as little better than a collaborator.

There's also the problem that, whatever your politics, missing this book isn't much of a miss. Even the fact that Mary Cheney is the lesbian daughter of Vice-president Dick Cheney (or, as Jon Stewart calls him, the Dark Lord) can't lift this book above its resounding banality. She can't give any insights into her father's campaigns or politics, because what she's written is a puff piece.

A really boring puff piece:

“Dad's confirmation set all sorts of speed records. He was nominated on March 10, his confirmation hearing started on the fourteenth, and he was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate and officially sworn in as secretary of defense on the seventeenth.”

Riveting, isn't it? You should read the hand sanitizer story. And considering her insider position in both the hotly contested 2000 presidential election and the nation-dividing 2004 race, the question begs to be asked, did Mary Cheney focus on little human interest stories about her dad because she doesn't have any insight to give, or because she isn't willing to tackle the subject because it might make her father look bad? When appearing on talk shows supporting the book, Cheney appears to be intelligent and well-spoken, suggesting it's far more the latter than the former.

Certainly Cheney was under no obligation to write Daddy Dearest here. By all accounts her relationship with her father is a close one, and her story of his acceptance of her coming out reads like a PFLAG promo spot. But children of other prominent politicians have been able to love their parents while rejecting or questioning their politics. Ron Reagan was able to express his personal support of his father but dissent from his political beliefs, and certainly didn't actively work to put into office leaders who literally fought to deny him his rights.

Now It's My Turn is also a chance for Cheney to apply some right wing lesbian spin to the issue of gay and lesbian civil rights, especially marriage equality, and how that issue was used during the 2004 presidential campaign and is being used today. In her book and in interviews, Cheney consistently expresses disappointment in her own party's discrimination against lesbian and gay Americans. She even says she almost quit when Bush came out in favor of amending the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.

About her father's response to a question about same-sex marriage, she wrote, “My dad's response was that it was a matter for the states to decide. It wasn't a memorable answer, but I think the consensus was that when an issue causes strong feelings, as gay rights does, bland is probably all right.”

How “bland” is Dick Cheney's support of virulent homophobes like Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), of “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be” fame? And why is she giving Bush a pass on his support of an amendment that would do such direct damage to Cheney herself? It seems her “forgive them for they know what they do” attitude extends right up to the Oval Office.

Page 1 / 2 - Next