---------------Walt Handelsman, Newsday

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Dick Cheney: "Tawdry" and a "Bad Man"
I realize politics is a dirty business, and very often all sides are guilty of distortions or outright lies. And yes, that would include the Democrats. But the smear job the Bush/Cheney people have done on John Kerry over the last few months goes far beyond anything anyone has done in the past.

Last week Dick and Lynne Cheney worked themselves into a lather huffing and puffing over John Kerry's reference to their daughter Mary, who is a lesbian. Kerry's statement was in no way derogatory. Indeed, if anything, it was a compliment to the Cheneys' strong family ties. Yet the Vice President and his wife called the reference "tawdry," and said that Kerry was a "bad man." Their main objection seemed to be that Kerry had no right to drag Mary's name into the political arena.

Huh?

On August 24th, during a town hall meeting in Davenport, Iowa, Dick Cheney himself said "Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with" in response to a question about Bush's proposed constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages.

So why didn't Mrs. Cheney bop her husband over the head with her microphone and scream about how he's "tawdry" and a "bad man?"

But enough about Kerry's little remark. Did you hear what Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio, said last month? In an interview on Sirius satellite radio, he called Dick Cheney's daughter a "selfish hedonist." So why didn't the Cheneys raise hell about that!?!

If this whole little "controversy" doesn't reek of a double standard, I don't know what does.