Politico dubs Dick Cheney 'civil rights hero

Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris, along with reporters Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns have a story on the key players advancing same-sex marriage. Among them, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who they call "a civil rights hero"...

Harris and co. write:

Dick Cheney is a civil rights hero.

Yes, we just wrote that sentence. And it’s possible that Cheney himself, not just liberals, would recoil. But the reality is that the former vice president and scourge of liberals was the original Rob Portman, taking a personal stand in support of gay marriage – and his gay daughter, by extension – more than a half-generation ago. ...

As a staunch conservative, Cheney also has tended to be an afterthought in the gay rights discussion – except when clips of him making speaking up for gay rights are used in ads from groups such as Respect for Marriage.

But The Human Rights Campaign’s Chad Griffin said that Cheney’s position was “quite significant” for gay rights.