Liberal columnist defends Liz Cheney in sibling squabble

Liz Cheney, who is running for U.S. Senate out of Wyoming and recently got in a public quarrel with her lesbian sister Mary's wife, has found herself with an unlikely ally: liberal columnist for the Washington Post Ruth Marcus.

After Liz said on Fox News Sunday that she doesn't support same-sex marriage, her sister-in-law Heather Poe wrote on Facebook that she found Liz's comments "offensive" and charged hypocrisy for Liz having congratulated Mary and Heather on their wedding back in 2012.

On that drama, Ruth Marcus writes:

[M]aybe Liz was merely being polite at the time. To say she’s happy for the married couple is not the same as saying she embraces their marriage.

Look, I would have been tempted to post, too. I would have been tempted to tweet. Then I would have thought better of it — or, more likely, my spouse would have told me to step away from the keyboard. That’s what Heather should have done for Mary. Instead, Mary reposted Heather’s incendiary message.

Social media knit us together but they also fuel our worst instincts. They serve as a powerful accelerant to the fire of anger. When we should be counting to 10, we are banging out 140 impulsive characters. In the hands of warring sisters, Facebook is a weapon of mass family destruction.

Finally, the implication that Liz’s position is one of political convenience is a bit rich coming from the wife of someone (Mary) who worked to reelect a president (George W. Bush) who urged rewriting the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. After Bush’s comments in 2004, Mary considered quitting the campaign. She chose to stay silent. Not exactly a profile in political courage.