agreeing to disagree

"Freedom means freedom for everyone...people be ought to be able to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."

That's Vice President Dick Cheney addressing a question about gay marriage and his own opposition to the proposed Constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. At first blush it would seem odd that Cheney, the Bush administration's arch-conservative attack dog, would publicly espouse a stand so divergent from that of his boss...so divergent from the views of so many of his conservative brethren.

But then you have to take into account the fact that one of Cheney's daughters is a lesbian and it suddenly makes much more sense. It is, after all, hard to demonize and marginalize a group that includes your own flesh and blood...that includes the woman who used to be (and in some ways always will be) your "little girl".

The Vice-President acknowledges that the administration's official policy is the purview of President Bush but he retains his right to, on this issue at least, agree to respectfully disagree with that policy.

I wonder if Dubya's dogged opposition to gay marriage would chance if one of his girls came out of the closet? I guess we'll never know...