Huffington Post reports on a new ad scheduled to run this Sunday:
The Respect for Marriage Coalition, a group that supports same-sex marriage, is launching a $1 million ad campaign featuring clips of political figures from both sides of the aisle, including President Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell.
“Against the backdrop of President Obama’s historic comments about marriage rights in his inaugural address, freedom to marry legislation pending in a number of states, and two landmark marriage cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Coalition is working to grow support for marriage rights for same-sex couples across the nation,” the group said in a news release.
The TV spot, which Politico reports is set to air during the Sunday morning political shows and on national cable channels, uses past clips of Obama, Cheney, Powell, and former First Lady Laura Bush, highlighting bipartisan support for marriage equality.
Were you aware that Dick Cheney, mostly a boogeyman to the left, supports gay marriage? He has mostly kept it quiet, however he has in fact supported gay marriage since his daughter revealed she is gay. The reason why he has not been more vocal, according to Cheney himself, is purely political:
When asked why he did not make a case for same-sex marriage during an interview by ABC News, he said that “it wouldn’t have done much good and probably would have sunk President George W. Bush’s prospects for office,” The Associated Press reported.
“I’m sure it was fine. We wished them well. She wanted to avoid having it be a media circus or having it become part of the political debate. So Lynn and I were very proud and happy and congratulated them,” Cheney remarked on the marriage.
The former vice president made his support of gay marriage quite clear in June 2009, where he said at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. 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 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 today, on a state-by-state basis. Different states will make different decisions. But I don’t have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that.”
