Dick, Mary, and Liz in 2005.
No, not that Cheney. (Points to Liz, on the right.)
Nor that one. (Points to Dick, on the left.)
That one. (Points to Mary, on the middle.) She's right:
Mary Cheney has kept up her advocacy on her Facebook page, responding sharply to one commenter on the page who urged her to be “lovingly tolerant” of her sister’s position on same-sex marriage.
“This isn’t like a disagreement over grazing fees or what to do about Iran,” Mary Cheney wrote. “There isn’t a lot of gray here. Either you think all families should be treated equally or you don’t. Liz’s position is to treat my family as second class citizens. That’s not a position I can be ’lovingly tolerant’ towards.”
I'll admit that when I saw this "spat"
take center stage, my first reaction was that Liz, Mary, and their families were engaged in an epic act of trolling on the issue in order to shore up Liz's support among social conservatives, because of things
like this:
In Wyoming, a conservative super PAC called American Principles Fund ran a television ad for three weeks this fall noting that Cheney is opposed to a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
“This is a huge issue for Republican primary voters and it will carry over to the general election,” said the group's executive director, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is the daughter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. “Jobs and economy and spending are still the most important, but a candidate's position on social issues such a life and marriage sends an extremely strong message about their values. That's why taking the wrong side could be fatal.”
Obviously, it would take a breathtaking act of cynicism to fake this fight just to highlight Liz's archaic point of view, but if there's any family capable of such cynicism, clearly it would be the Cheneys. But at this point, it seems like any benefit Liz might get from having her her anti-equality stance amplified is being outweighed by the nastiness of the intrafamily feud, which makes me lean back to the simpler explanation: That this is a genuine disagreement, and that Liz Cheney sincerely believes her sister should not be treated equally under the law.