It's the Mary plan---oops, I mean the Kerry plan!

It's symposium time here at The Pursuit of Happiness and Other Sobering Thoughts (or as the kids say, TPOHAOST). Blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt has invited his readers to "sympose away" (also as the kids say) on Kerry & Edwards' odd fascination with Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary. Hugh wants to know...

How deep a hole have John Kerry, Mary Beth Cahill and the Edwards dug for themselves? How lasting the damage?

Well, I wouldn't go as far as Hewitt and say that they "abused Mary's privacy". I'm not so sure it's that hideous of a transgression. But given the Democrats’ recent ‘Bush-is-going-to-bring-back-the-draft’ scaremongering, this Mary Cheney tactic cries out: “Hey, our campaign is a sinking ship and we’re flailing about desperately trying to grab onto anything that even remotely resembles a life preserver!”

How else can you explain Edwards’ remarks about Mary during the vice-presidential debate? Sure, on the face of it, the comments sound cordial and pleasant. But remember, this is a debate, and debaters are adversaries. If a debater is using innocuous-sounding language in regards to his opponent, it’s probably a trap.

In case you haven’t picked up on it, the trap is this: Edwards describes Dick and Lynne as loving parents who just want their gay children to be happy. Gullible, hapless Dick, who doesn’t see this train coming from a mile away, says something that rubs up unfavorably against Edwards’ glowing family portrait. Possibly, he utters something to the effect of “I love my daughter and I want her to be happy, but I am against something that would make her happy, like gay marriage.” Voters, shocked that Cheney could be so callous towards his daughter’s pursuit of happiness, grab hold of the swing Edwards has provided for them and Tarzan their way on over, en-masse, to the Kerry camp.

What’s truly pathetic is how obvious the trap was. Did the Dems seriously believe a skilled debater like Cheney would step onto such an obvious landmine? With such sparkling genius on display, it’s no wonder they’ve lost the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.

As for Kerry’s “shout-out” (with emphasis on the word “out”, of course), it just seems gratuitous. “Bob, if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter…” Well, he isn’t. He’s talking to you, John Kerry, and your opponent, George W. Bush. Incorporating Mary into your spiel about how “homosexuality isn’t a choice” does not serve to further clarify your point, so why do it?

Perhaps it’s to draw a distinction between the two tickets on an issue in which they have similar opinions. They both think that marriage should be between a man and a woman, except Dick Cheney would be so heartless as to deny his own daughter, who didn’t choose to become a lesbian, the right to marry a woman! How grateful John Kerry must feel, knowing that his daughters are not lesbians, and therefore cannot be used against him on this issue! Boy, he sure dodged a bullet there, didn’t he?

Really, this is such a childish move on Kerry & Edwards part. And with Mary Beth Cahill chiming in with her assertion that Mary is fair game, it’s clear that she is now a target of the Democrats, as opposed to the peripheral figure she ought to be treated as. There is a very real danger that voters will take a dim view of this “last-ditch ganging up” and see Mary as a victim of sorts. And that could very well drive the final nail into Kerry’s haughty, French-looking coffin.

-Dave O'Connell