And speaking of firsts, John Aravosis at AMERICAblog noticed that the White House officially acknowledged that Mary Cheney and Heather Poe are the parents of Samuel David Cheney, and they put up a picture of the proud grandparents for good measure.
Can you hear the heads exploding at the headquarters of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs? If Jerry Falwell was alive, this would kill him.
Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, welcomed their sixth grandchild, Samuel David Cheney, Wednesday, May 23, 2007. He weighed 8 lbs., 6 oz and was born at 9:46 a.m. at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. His parents are the Cheneys’ daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. [Emphasis added.]
One of John's readers raised a good point: remember how huffy Vice President Cheney got when interviewers and presidential candidates like John Kerry brought up the fact that Mary Cheney is a lesbian and praised her for being a role model and a fine citizen; how the Cheneys grumbled that their daughter's life was a private matter? Remember how Mary Cheney herself said that she echoed her father's earthy (if anatomically impossible) suggestion to Senator Patrick Leahy when John Edwards brought her name up in the vice presidential debate in 2004? Now all of a sudden the birth of this child has brought out the photographers and the picture is on the official White House website.
So either the Cheneys have had a real change of heart about gay marriage or at least treating gays and lesbians as equals when it comes to the rights and responsibilities of parenting and partnerships, or they're flaming hypocrites when it comes to press coverage about the birth of their grandchild. You make the call.
