After Cheney's speech at Republican convention, every member of the Cheney family appeared on stage except Mary Cheney: The lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney was conspicuously absent when her parents introduced Mary's sister, husband and four children to the Republican throngs after Dad's big speech Wednesday night. Mary sat instead with her partner, Heather Poe, in the VIP box across the hall, a choice she reportedly made herself.

Mary's stage fright might be forgiven. A few hours before, the delegates had cheered Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who led a fight in his state against same-sex marriage, touching off a national brawl that landed squarely in the party platform. On Tuesday, the delegates cheered Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., for heralding traditional marriage.

Not to mention that on Monday, Alan Keyes, running for a Senate seat in Illinois, called Mary Cheney a "selfish hedonist," and Rep. Edward Schrock, R- Va., announced his swift departure from Congress after a posting on a Web log said he was gay.

The vice president recently stood up for his daughter in public, departing from Bush's call for a constitutional amendment to ban lesbian and gay marriages. "Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue that our family is very familiar with," Cheney said.

But Chris Barron, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans, said the party platform and personal attacks from Keyes "have created a hostile environment in which Mary Cheney was either unwanted or uncomfortable on stage with her family. This is a prime-time example of the far right dividing American families."

That was a cheap political trick to score points with a base that is ashamed the daughter of the Vice President is a lesbian and is openly hostile to homosexuals nationwide. It was particularly a cheap trick for fellow Republicans to call Mary Cheney "a selfish hedonist.".

In the Vice-Presidential debate, John Edwards brought up Mary Cheney, and here is what Dick Cheney said:

Gwen Ifill Mr. Vice President, you have 90 seconds.

Vice President Cheney Well, Gwen, let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much.

Senator Edwards You're welcome.

Gwen Ifill That's it?

Vice President Cheney That's it.

Commentators roundly agreed that it was the warmest, and most "human" moment of the debate for both candidates:

The warmest moment in the debate came during a discussion of same-sex marriage, when Edwards praised Cheney for publicly embracing his lesbian daughter, Mary. Now, after they excluded their daughter of the national stage to pander to a homophobic base, and after they welcomed the comments of John Edwards about Mary Cheney, the Cheney's have resorted to a cheap political trick: claiming that they are offended Kerry mentioned Mary Cheney was a lesbian. If anything is a cheap trick, it is to welcome warm comments about a family member one day, and then the next week claim you are offended in an attempt to score points during post-debate spin after every poll shows your candidate got his butt kicked in the debate.

This isn't going to stop the story from having significant play today and tomorrow, however. It might even trickle into the weekend, although that is doubtful. That fact is that this is, once again, a perfect example of the personality narrative that the media loves. That it has the hint of sex about it makes it even juicier. Who cares about issues when you can talk about lesbians and family intrigue?

Using a cheap political trick overflowing with hypocrisy, shame and hatred, Republicans have scored their first real points against Kerry in over two weeks. The saddest part of all is to realize that we still live in a country where pointing out that someone who is openly gay is, in fact, gay, is somehow a scandal.