New Hampshire paper comes out attacking lesbian remark

[kokomo]

The "Union Leader" isntomorrow's edition prints an editorial that contends that Kerry and Edwards have both stepped over the line. Remember New Hampshire is a "swing state"!

In an editorial titled: No class: Incivility of Kerry camp is shameful

"How would Elizabeth Edwards feel if the Cheneys invoked her dead son Wade in the context of a political debate, or presumed to know how she felt about his passing?

The Edwardses and Kerry have stepped beyond the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. They owe the Cheneys an apology."

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=45598

Were the remarks worth the hay that the Republicans are now harvesting from them???

[progressivebydesign]

1. What a fucking crock of shit! They act like being gay is a sex crime!

If Cheney or Bush had mentioned the loss of Edwards son, in relation to teen driving, family tragedy, grief, etc. then WHY would Edwards be upset?

Is this fucking country losing it's MIND????????????????????? MARY CHENEY IS A LESBIAN!!!!!!!!! She worked as a professional gay person for Coors (it was in her fucking JOB TITLE!), she's been openly gay for years and years! CHENEY talks about it all the time (on the campaign trail, of course).

These people have lost their fucking minds!! THe woman was OUT! They didn't fucking OUT HER!

And furthermore! WHEN IS IT CONSIDERING A FUCKING INSULT TO BE GAY!! That's absolutely disgusting! These pent up, repressed, right wing prudes are treating gays as though they are sex criminals!! There is NO SHAME in being gay! I"m not gay.. but if I was, I'd be even more pissed!

[Zero Division]

9. having an out lesbian = having a dead child : revolting comparison,

even if only implied. :puke: To many rightwing nuts that's exactly what having an out-of-the-closet gay or lesbian child is like.

[okieinpain]

22. exactly and somebody should throw it right back in their faces.

using a dead child to make a cheap political point. that editor is not a decent man

[high density]

2. The Union Leader has already endorsed Bush

My question is, why in the hell were these crazy people (and Fox News) involved in one of the Democratic primary debates earlier this year?

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Gephardt needs to get on this one ASAP

I haven't seen him with any of this.

Personally, I see nothing offensive about what Kerry said. Mary Cheney has been out for a while and both Lynne and Dick have talked about it on the stump. Kerry 'might' have softened it a bit and avoided the attacks now coming had he also said Mary Cheney and Gephardt's daughter's name. But it's all a diversion tactic to not focus on what he said which is "We're all God's children."

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. Circulation of 82,000 on Sundays....not exactly a major media...

...except in their own minds.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. This publication...

...on this issue, has the same credibility as, say, the Spencer Abraham Diet Cookbook.

"Oppportunistic" doesn't begin to cover it....

[JI7]

5. the Union Leader is a Conservative leaning paper so it's no surprise

[tritsofme]

6. Union Leader is RW rag. nt

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. and has endorsed Bush already

and death and why someone is gay are like SOOOOOOOO different subjects.

[Tim_in_HK]

7. Union Leader is not worth even

thinking about. Next they'll be a 'blistering' editorial in the Washington Times . . .

[dogtag]

10. Comparing Mary with Wade Edwards? Are they saying

that being gay is a fate worse than death? Sounds like it to me.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. Here's the scoop on the ultra-conservative Union Leader....

<http://www.fact-index.com/u/un/union_leader_of_manchester.html>

Excerpt:

The Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. As of 2003 it has a daily circulation of 61,548, and a circulation of 82,429 for its Sunday paper, the New Hampshire Sunday News. It was founded in 1863.

The Union Leader is best known for the extremely conservative political opinions of its late publisher, William Loeb, and his wife, Nackey Scripps Loeb. Famously, the paper helped defeat Maine governor Edmund Muskie in his 1972 bid for the presidency by attacking his wife in editorials, leading Muskie to tearfully defend her in a press conference that some say ruined his image in the state, which holds the first presidential primary.

The Loebs are also considered the people most responsible for New Hampshire's lack of any income or sales tax, due to the newspaper's decades of anti-tax rhetoric that shaped the state political landscape.

The newspaper's strident tone has lessened considerably since the Loebs died.

[Norquist Nemesis]

16. Now why does the name Scripps

sound familiar...

[regnaD kciN]

18. Which wife was that...

...his fifth or sixth? Loeb was notorious for going through marriages in almost Gingrichian fashion.

His first wife supported him in her schoolteaching job while he started up his paper (I believe she gave him some inheritance from her family as the seed money, too). Then, as soon as it was up and profitable, he dumped her and used his newfound wealth to hire lawyers to make sure he came out of the marriage with all the assets. Since his soon-to-be-ex no longer had any money of her own, she didn't have a chance. I understand he rarely if ever bothered to pay child support, too, and stiffed one of his children from that marriage when they needed urgent medical attention.

I guess it's just another example of Republican advocacy of family values...

:puke:

[feistydem]

12. So being a lesbian is as bad as being killed to these people?

They have given away their true beliefs.

[ibegurpard]

13. Sounds like some New Hampshire DUers need to write some LTEs

Lots of good points made about this on the boards here today.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

15. Union Leader has always been a conservative paper, even

when my dad was a kid growing up in that area of NH (Derry), and he's 55 now.

[regnaD kciN]

17. The U-L was THE right-wing media...

...back before there was a "right-wing media."

Seriously, the U-L used to be owned by William Loeb (I think his family still owns it), a low-rent Murdoch wannabe. He ran editorials (his daily editorials were always carried in the first column on the front page) suggesting that Martin Luther King "got what was coming to him," and claiming that "the reason New Hampshire has so few problems is that hardly any blacks live here." In 1972, he endorsed a third-party wingnut for the presidency because he considered Nixon a Communist sympathizer for renewing ties with mainland China.

Since then, the U-L has reliably echoed the politics of the Washington Times and New York Post. It derives its influence mainly because it's the only morning paper in the state, and hence has the highest circulation. It has a lot to do with why New Hampshire is generally the only state in the entire Northeast to go Republican.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

19. It probaby had a lot to do with why it took NH so long to

recognize Martin Luther King Day. It was just a few years ago (2000) NH finally recognized it as a holiday. The last state, I believe, to finally do so.

[Erika]

20. The Cheney's Outed Mary in 2000 For Their Political Cause

She was used by her folks as a bridge to the gay community by the GOP. She was also on the payroll of Peter Coors. I have No respect for Mary Cheney.

[kokomo]

23. Cheneys pimped Mary when the Log Cabiners talked about bolting the party

Bush doesn't want to lose a million gay votes, so Mary was trotted out last month by her parents to whore for these votes.

In 2000, the gay vote made up 4% of the national total and Bush received about 25% of that vote -- more than one million votes.

[nonconformist]

21. That pissed me off enough to email them

Here is what I said:

I think it's unfortunate that The Union Leader equates homosexuality to death. John Kerry was not disrespecting Mary Cheney in any way - in fact it was quite the contrary. He was acknowledging that she is who she is and that homosexuality is part of many families lives and therefore part of America.

To say that it would be equally tasteless to invoke Edward's late son is preposterous and transcendent. The outcry over Kerry's comments only shows that to many, homosexuality is something to be ashamed of. If the Cheney family did not want their openly gay daughter used as a glowing example of how gays are a part of America they shouldn't have used her for their own political gain when it served them.

Your comparison of homosexuality to the pain of losing a child is what is really shameful and classless.