Mary Cheney' s New Book Fires Back at Her Critics!

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," May 9, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Joining us now, an exclusive interview, is the author of Federal Marriage Amendment. And quite frankly, I thought it would be inappropriate for me, as a senior staff member of the campaign, to be issuing policy statements about my own position.

COLMES: So how do you — what is your reaction when you get that criticism from people in the gay community?

CHENEY: You know, I respect their opinion. I disagree with them, but I respect them for it.

COLMES: You're very angry with Kerry and Edwards because of what happened during the debates.

CHENEY: I had a very angry reaction. That was probably the best way to describe it.

COLMES: And actually, in the Edwards debate, it was actually Gwen Ifill, who brought up the question and said to your dad — you said it again recently — when you were asking about legalizing same sex unions, and you use your family's experience as a context for your remarks. John Edwards responded to that after your father spoke.

CHENEY: Actually, no, that's not right.

COLMES: Gwen Ifill brought it up.

CHENEY: John Edwards responded to my father, who very specifically didn't take the bait from Gwen Ifill.

COLMES: Gwen Ifill brought it up, though.

CHENEY: My dad responded to the question that Gwen Ifill raised. John Edwards is the one who then said — who then brought me into it.

COLMES: You are angry with Edwards and Kerry, and yet they're fighting for...

CHENEY: I'd like to think I'm not angry with anybody at the moment.

COLMES: It comes out in the book you said...

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: I'm angry all the time.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Wait until the story about this show comes out. Look, but it's Edwards and Kerry who are fighting for the policies that you say you want, and the administration that's not fighting for the policies.

CHENEY: Actually, that's not true. Edwards and Kerry weren't making — you know, one of the things that I think was so disappointing about their responses during the debates was that, rather than talk about the substance of the issue — and let's be honest these are issues that we all disagree, that we can disagree on and we all have very strong opinions on. But, you know, they had their chance to talk about these issues on the substance in front of the American people.

COLMES: And would you have supported them? If they came out for gay marriage, would you have supported them?

CHENEY: They actually didn't come out for gay marriage.

COLMES: But would you have supported them if they did?

CHENEY: As I talk about in the book, I don't have the luxury of being a single-issue voter on that issue. We have so many issues facing this country right now, primarily the War on Terror, national security. I had to support the candidate, and I think we should all support the candidate who's going to do the best job of protecting this country and her people.

HANNITY: Hey, I'm — this is only a small part of your book. I'm only going to ask you one question about it, but I know that that's where the media focus has been. But you knew that would be the case.

CHENEY: I did know that was going to be the case.

HANNITY: You told the story when you first told your parents about your sexual orientation, and you tell the story about your dad. And you wanted to tell that story, why?

CHENEY: You know, it's one of the things that's really interesting. A lot of times the mainstream media, in particular, likes to give a caricature of people, particularly of my dad. You know, show Dick Cheney as Darth Vader, and that's not him.

You know, he is such an honorable man. He's so smart and he's so tough and he's so loving and he's such a great dad and such a great grandfather that, you know, that's really what I wanted to talk about. And what the main part of the book is really about is talking about growing up in this family.

HANNITY: You know, because I have actually been around your family a few times. And I don't know why they let me near your family.

CHENEY: We went on a great bus tour through Ohio.

HANNITY: I watched you on that bus tour very closely with your mom and dad, and you were like three different phones and you were orchestrating every aspect of that campaign. And you were as active and as involved and passionate and had everything at stake like they did. I mean, this was your passion.

CHENEY: I spent 18 — I put aside my own life for 18 months to work on the re-election campaign, because I believed in it so strongly and because I was so flattered that my dad had asked me to run his campaign operations.

HANNITY: Let me ask this, because I — one of the things I admire most about your father — I'm a huge fan of your father's and President Bush's. I have disagreements with Republicans on some spending and immigration issues now, but I admire the fact that they have this perspective. They see, you know, through the prism of history, and their actions are not based on polls. They're based on what's the right thing to do.

CHENEY: Actually one of the things that I most admire about both my dad and President Bush is this ability to take this long, historical perspective, to base their decisions on what they know is right for the country and for our future. And it's so important that they focus on that rather than on, you know, what might be politically expedient or popular at the moment.

HANNITY: You talk all about life on the road, the campaign, the 37 days. So there's a lot more beyond the one issue that a lot of people ask you about.

CHENEY: There's a ton more than the one issue people ask me about.

HANNITY: Does it bother you? Is it a pain?

CHENEY: No. I knew that was going to be the deal when I started on the book tour. And I...

COLMES: That's the issue that's going to sell books?

CHENEY: I'm not quite so sure. Well, I think there's actually an awful lot of stuff in the book that's really interesting. I think there's stuff that's a lot more interesting in the book than that.

COLMES: We will talk about some of that on radio later tonight.

CHENEY: All right. I'm looking forward to it.

COLMES: We thank you very much. We thank Mary Cheney.

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