Kerry remark angers Cheneys

Vice President Dick Cheney, a self-described “angry father,” yesterday denounced Sen. John Kerry for bringing up his homosexual daughter during a debate with President Bush, calling the Democratic candidate “a man who will do and say anything to get elected.”

“I am not just speaking as a father here, although I am a pretty angry father,” the vice president told supporters at a rally in Fort Myers, Fla.

During the final presidential debate Wednesday, the two presidential candidates were asked whether they believed “homosexuality is a choice.”

“We’re all God’s children,” Mr. Kerry said. “I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.”

Pro-family leaders and Republican strategists yesterday called the unsolicited comment about Mary Cheney an invasion of privacy and a calculated attempt by the Kerry campaign to undermine the Bush-Cheney ticket’s support from conservative Christian voters.

Homosexual groups said the comment was entirely appropriate, while the two presidential campaigns engaged in a war of words over Mr. Kerry’s remarks.

The furor began minutes after the Wednesday night debate ended, when Lynne Cheney introduced her husband to a crowd of supporters in Coraopolis, Pa.

“Now, you know, I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more and now the only thing I could conclude: This is not a good man,” she said. “Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick.”

As Mr. Kerry’s comments began to draw criticism across the political spectrum, the wife of vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards weighed in on the issue, saying Mrs. Cheney appears to be ashamed of her homosexual daughter.

“She’s overreacted to this and treated it as if it’s shameful to have this discussion,” Elizabeth Edwards said yesterday.

“I think that’s a very sad state of affairs. I think that it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter’s sexual preferences,” she said. “It makes me really sad that that’s Lynne’s response.”

Later in the day, Mr. Kerry, aware that his comments were garnering increasingly negative coverage, released a terse statement trying to defuse the confrontation with the Cheneys.

“I love my daughters. They love their daughter. I was trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue,” he said.

Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said there was no “ill intent” in the senator’s comments.

“The fact that the Bush camp is making such an issue about this is an attempt to talk about anything but the debate,” he said.

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