What to Expect When You're Expecting the Grandchild of a Snarling Vice President

Mary Cheney--yes, the gay one-- is pregnant.

Without getting into the technicalities of how such a pregnancy occurred, there are a few interesting political questions this insemination brings to the fore.

1. Will Cheney and her partner, former forest ranger Heather Poe, move from Virginia?

Virginia law explicitly bans gay couples and individuals from adopting. And just this year Virginia passed a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. If Poe wants to be a legally recognized parent, then she and Cheney might consider moving to Maryland where this is possible.

2. Mary Cheney may have thrown her community under the bus in order to please her father, but will she do the same to her child's future?

They say you become conservative when you have something to conserve. Maybe Mary Cheney will become a liberal when she has a child she doesn't want gay-bashed on the streets, ostracized at school, and denied the rights of citizenship.

Probably not, but maybe she'll work a little harder to do good the next time she has a dad who is the Vice President of the most powerful country in the world.

3. Will the gay community finally realize that the most important and politically advantageous rights can be gained by changing gay adoption laws?

Gay marriage isn't the only way to legally codify gay relationships. Children of gay parents should be protected by the state in the case of divorce so that they are guaranteed the right to maintain relationships with both parents. States should recognize the parental rights of both parents so that during medical crises children have the benefit of dual support and decision making authority. The truth is, the only reasons I care about marriage are children and divorce. Isn't that what tying the knot is all about?!


So congratulations to the oddly coifed couple-- you'll make great parents. And so will millions of other gay people around the world for whom you've done absolutely nothing in the past 6 opportunity-filled years!

Meet the Do Something Congress

When a politician or high-level exec says he or she is stepping down to spend more time with the family, or when such a person puts off announcing a run for office in order to talk with his or her family about the idea, you know it's bunk. Being a politician is never good for your family. Ever. There are the long work hours, the public scrutiny, the low wages, etc. The two responsibilities cannot be performed with equal gusto. (Just ask one of the Pelosi kids...)


Knowing this, one must laugh aloud when a lazy Congressman like Jack Kingston reacts in horror to the latest Democratic effort to turn the do-nothing Congress into a do-something Congress.

Steny Hoyer has extended the Congressional work day from a paltry 2 days to a hefty, burdonsome, unAmerican, Dickensian era 4 days.

Rep. Kingston, your reaction?

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

Making you do your job in the city where that job takes place is pretty damn reasonable, though maybe not to someone who twice voted against a minimum wage increase for Americans who actually have to work for a living.

LINK

Here's The First Gay Couple to Marry in South Africa

And here is the sky not falling:

Bolton Bolts

Just as New Yorkers awoke this morning to find their winter heat wave had abated, so too did their President. John Bolton, the twice unconfirmed UN ambassador, submitted a letter of resignation in the face of continued bipartisan opposition to his appointment.

LINK

It will be interesting to see if Bush appoints another retro-pol to the job just as he did by appointing James Baker to head the Iraq Study Group and Robert Gates to Secretary of Defense. If he reaches into his father's war chest for a better candidate Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del), the new Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is very likely to at least give that person a hearing. Bolton, he said, was a "non-starter."

Bolton's resignation is no harbinger of bipartisanship and compromise. It's an easy way out of an impossible situation. Short of a miracle, there was no way Bolton could have been confirmed and Bush's only option was a sleazy manipulation of the process-- demoting Bolton to a deputy position that does not require confirmation without filling the role of UN Ambassador, thus making Bolton the de facto head of American diplomacy there. Two years ago Bush may have taken this sleazy step, but today he is saving his "screw you Democrat party" points for things like women's health.