Please critique my letter to Howard Fineman. Thanks!

[joeybee12]

Gasps in the pressroom? (This was the title of his article, and so I will use this as the subject line in my e-mail).

__________________________

Why?

Where were the gasps and the outrage when speaker after speaker at the Republican National Convention condemned homosexuals, while Mary Cheney and her life partner were in the audience? Where were the gasps and the outrage when the entire Bush and Cheney clans were on stage at the end of the convention, and Mary Cheney was nowhere to be in sight?

Far from being wrong, Kerry was dead right to mention Mary Cheney's name, even if it did produce disgustingly false outrage from her parents--remember, Dick thanked John Edwards for mentioning it in their vice presidential debate. Kerry's mention of Mary is a turning point in the debate on gay rights and gay marriage, because it puts a human face on the issue, something the Republican Party--run and staffed by a bunch of bigots--do not want.

Mary is a public person, she is openly gay, she is paid $100,000 by the reelection committee, was one of the founders of a Republican recruitment organization to attract gays to the party, and prior to this, she held a very visible position with the Coors Corporation as the head of outreach to the gay and lesbian community.

Drag her into the debate? What a joke. Mary has always been the 500-pound gorilla in the room. Everyone knows she's gay, and everyone wonders how Bush and Cheney and their ilk can be so bigoted and ignorant with her standing right there, and also wonder why Mary allows herself to be degraded and used.

The only reason there were gasps is because of the homophobia found in the press corps. God forbid an honest discussion of gays and gay rights should ever enter politics. Let's keep it on a clean, abstract, unthreatening, non-human level so we can all not be bothered about what it's truly about—real people.

[Paradise]

1. Bravo, joeybee12! n/t

[joeybee12]

3. Thanks!!!!!!!!!

[shrub chipper]

2. Great letter, but you're wasting it in that

MEDIAWHORE!!!!

[joeybee12]

5. Thanks, and you may be right. I was going to ignore it, thinking this

issue would die down, but it just pisses me off too much to see it still going on, and I feel I have to say something!

[tech3149]

4. Looks good but a bit harsh

It works on a simple emotional level. You might search for Dick Cheney statments too. I beleive he spoke of her before the convention , possibly eveen during the 2000 campaign.

[joeybee12]

6. Did he mention her by name during his debate with Lieberman in 2000?

I recall watching it and only thinking that this was an issue Joe should have come out on top of, but he was so wishy washy that Cheney actually sounded more compassionate and thoughtful at the time!

[tech3149]

7. That may be

My memory is too sketchy.

[joeybee12]

8. Yeah, I can't recall precisely, either.