Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he and his wife Lynne are "pained" over the public row between daughters Liz and Mary over gay marriage,
according to Politico.
Liz Cheney is challenging incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi in the Wyoming Republican primary next August. Though both Cheney and Enzi oppose it, her candidacy has become strongly identified with opposition to gay marriage.
Mary Cheney
told The New York Times, "What amazes me is that she says she's running to be a new generation of leader. I'm not sure how sticking to the positions of the last 20 or 30 years is the best way to do that."
And in a Facebook post she wrote: "Liz — this isn't just an issue on which we disagree, you're just wrong — and on the wrong side of history."
On her own Facebook page Mary's wife Heather Poe wrote: "Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 — she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. To have her now say she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least."
The former vice president and his wife said they were "surprised" that Mary and Heather Poe had publicly attacked Liz on Facebook and "wished it hadn't happened" since the gay issue had "always been dealt with within the context of the family, and frankly, that's our preference."
Cheney noted that Liz "has also always treated her sister and her sister's family with love and respect, exactly as she should have done. . . . Compassion is called for, even when there is disagreement about such a fundamental matter and Liz's many kindnesses shouldn't be used to distort her position."
The former vice president said that he would have nothing further to say on this "difficult" subject.
Liz Cheney's position notwithstanding, American Principles Fund, a conservative super PAC, has spent $140,000 on ads implying that during her tenure in President George W. Bush's State Department she did not oppose extending federal benefits to same-sex couples, Politico reported.
Polls show that by a majority of 59 to 41 percent Wyoming residents oppose gay marriage. Nationally, opposition among conservative-leaning Republican voters is as high as 73 percent.
A polls taken at the end of October showed Cheney trailing far behind Enzi.
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