http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicsel ... eney_x.htm
Vice President Cheney broke with President Bush on Tuesday on the question of same-sex marriage, saying he believes the issue should be left to the states. "Freedom means freedom for everyone," he said at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa.
"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with," Cheney said as his daughter Mary stood in the audience. He said he opposes the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that Bush has endorsed.
"But the president makes basic policy for the administration," he added.
Cheney's comments were remarkable on several fronts. He acknowledged his daughter's homosexuality in a more direct way than ever before. While he said in the vice presidential debate in 2000 that the issue of gay marriage should be left to the states, he had not publicly reiterated that view since Bush's decision in February to embrace a federal constitutional ban.
In fact, administration observers were hard-pressed to think of any other issue on which Cheney has publicly disagreed with Bush after a decision had been made.
The vice president also made his comments as Republicans began debating the party platform in New York. The draft was expected to endorse the constitutional amendment. But the GOP convention that opens Monday has been designed to project a moderate image — including prime-time speeches by such party moderates as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supports gay and abortion rights.
Steven Fisher, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest advocacy group for gay men and lesbians, said Cheney's comments showed divisions in the Republican Party.
"President Bush is feeling the heat from swing voters and moderate Republicans who oppose discrimination and who oppose the issue of gay marriage in the Constitution," Fisher said.
Some analysts suggested the vice president's words were smart politics. They could be reassuring to moderates and independent-minded suburban voters concerned that the administration was intolerant in its attitudes toward gays. Lynne Cheney made similar comments in an interview on CNN last month.
But Gary Bauer, a leading social conservative who heads a think tank called American Values, expressed dismay. "My only concern is that in a very close election, his comments could confuse and demoralize voters that President Bush desperately needs," said Bauer, who was in New York for the platform deliberations.
Cheney spoke in response to a questioner who asked, "I would like to know, sir, from your heart — I don't want to know what your advisers say, or even what your top adviser thinks — but I need to know: What do you think about homosexual marriages?"
Mary Cheney, director of vice presidential operations for the Bush campaign, has declined requests for interviews this year. But in an interview with USA TODAY in January 2001, she said her parents "both look you in the eye and tell you the truth, tell you what they're thinking
