Dick Cheney comes out in support of same-sex marriage. Seriously.

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So I get home from work earlier this evening, change, spend some time with my kids, make dinner with my wife (Mrs. Reaction? The Reactioness? The Reaction Gal? The Counter-Reaction?), turn on the baseball game (one of our national sports networks is showing Yanks-Indians: Go Tribe! But go also Jeter, Cano, and Teixeira, who are on my fantasy team), and, plopping down at the computer, head on over to the Internets to see what's going on.

And, after checking my e-mail, and my fantasy team, I happen upon this incredible headline at HuffPo:

Cheney Offers Support For Gay Marriage (VIDEO).

Incredible because not credible, because unbelievable, because seemingly incorrect. How could Cheney, that repository of evil, support gay marriage? He couldn't, could he? It's just not possible.

But it is. And, of course, the issue of gay rights is a personal one for the former VP (a former VP who is a hell of a lot more visible now than he ever was running the Bush Administration from his secret lair), given that one of his daughters, Mary, is a lesbian -- although he has spent much of his career running as far from the issue as possible (he's an arch-conservative, after all, and he has the conservative, anti-gay Republican base to consider).

But give credit where credit is due. The video is below. Here's some of what Cheney said at the National Press Club earlier today:

I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don't support. I do believe that the historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis... But I don't have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that.

Now, I don't agree with all of this. While I understand Cheney's states'-rights views, and while I applaud those states that, either in response to the courts or not, are leading the way to full legalization, I look at same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue that requires federal action, and that should be sanctioned by federal law. It is not appropriate, in my view, that same-sex marriage is legal in some states and illegal in others. It ought to be legal everywhere. Which is to say, Americans ought to be treated equally, and have the same basic rights, no matter what state they live in. And, gay or straight, they ought to be able to marry in any state. It's as simple as that.

Still, I don't want to take too much away from Cheney here. Sure, he can speak freely in part because he has no further plans to run for elected office as a Republican, and because he has so much credibility and support in the party and within the conservative movement already, but he could have remained silent on the issue, continuing, if only silently, to approve of Republican/conservative opposition to same-sex marriage.

He didn't, though. He spoke out, and, for once, and I can say in all seriousness:

Good for Dick Cheney.