American Idiot

The Lowest Blow

Yes, that's what I'm calling William Safire today. Read his column and you'll understand. He asserts as fact the notion that John Kerry's invocation of Mary Cheney was intentional and part of a Democratic strategy to peel away bigots--excuse me, the religious right--from their VP candidate on the grounds that he tolerates the existence of homosexuality in his family. Nowhere in his column does Safire even consider the possibility that Kerry's words came naturally to him, that rather than reaching for a shiv, he was reacting as a father to the notion of parental love the Cheneys have displayed by accepting their daughter despite party orthodoxy. Instead, Safire imputes to Kerry the vilest political motives and offers him, by way of redemption, the option of apologizing to the Cheneys for his cruelty and thereby "asserting his essential decency."

Safire, heal thyself. The indecent one is you, the impropriety that of you and every other Republican who allows this issue to be used as a wedge between voters and those who would best represent their interests. To sell out one's own family for political gain is surely a greater sin than providing the American people, circuitously, with the information needed to judge that sale. To call the "angry father" a saint and the "cheap and tawdry" trickster the sinner is a transgression far greater than either, for it is Safire, even more than either candidate, who leads the body public astray on this "issue." Should there be a hell awaiting the unjust at our end, surely there will be a special circle for him.