’04 Kerry remark on Cheney’s daughter still resonates

The remark was made when a moderator asked the Massachusetts Democrat whether sexuality is innate. Kerry responded by saying that “Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian . . . would tell you that she’s being who she was.’’ The response and resulting anger in the Bush-Cheney camp are recounted in Laura Bush’s new memoir, “Spoken from the Heart.’’

“Beside me, Jenna and Barbara gasped,’’ Bush writes of her experience with her daughters backstage in Tempe, Ariz. “They were utterly stunned that a candidate would use an opponent’s child in a debate. John Kerry’s statement did not seem like some off-the-cuff remark.’’

The book will be formally released May 4. Her husband’s memoir of his presidency, “Decision Points,’’ will be published in November.

Karl Rove, Bush’s closest adviser and longtime friend, also mentions Kerry’s remark in his book, which came out last month.

Rove and Laura Bush contend it was Kerry’s comment that made gay rights and gay marriage a major and volatile campaign issue, sparking increased support for Bush from religious conservatives. That assertion challenges the theory that the rise of gay rights as a campaign issue was fueled by referenda to ban gay marriage, which were on the ballot in eleven states that year.

“In 2004 the social question that animated the campaign was gay marriage,’’ Laura Bush writes.

“Before the election season had unfolded I had talked to George about not making gay marriage a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path this issue would take and where it would lead.’’

In his book, “Courage and Consequence,’’ Rove dismisses the idea that the referenda were part of a White House strategy or contributed significantly to Bush’s narrow victory.

At the same time, Rove says that a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision to legalize gay unions drew attention to Kerry’s “wobbly views on marriage.’’

Instead, suggests Rove, it was Kerry’s comment about Mary Cheney, a lesbian who did not have a visible role in her father’s campaign, that made individual sexuality a major campaign issue.

“This was a jarring moment; the word lesbian had never been used before in a presidential debate,’’ wrote Rove. “I knew in an instant Kerry had made a bad misstep; he looked nasty and his comment dominated the coverage in the days that followed.’’

To Rove, Kerry had exposed a “meanness’’ that Bush long suspected was there. “Bush thought Kerry was a pedantic and arrogant flip-flopper and didn’t like the Massachusetts senator,’’ wrote Rove. “I was worried those feelings would show through.’’

Kerry’s press secretary yesterday said that the passages in Bush’s book “didn’t strike us as controversial.’’ “Senator Kerry long ago put the 2004 campaign behind him, and he has always admired Mrs. Bush,’’ Whitney Smith said.

“Judging by the excerpts we’ve already seen in the media, Mrs. Bush is candid about her own discomfort with the divisive way gay marriage was wielded as a weapon in the 2004 campaign,’’ Smith said.

“Indeed, the Republican Party sadly moved a long way from 2000, when candidate Cheney defended the right of gay Americans to live their lives free of legal discrimination, to 2004, when a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage became a political football for the Bush campaign.’’

— Sasha Issenberg

The talk at the White House would be the first known formal interview Obama has conducted for the upcoming opening on the high court. The person familiar with the talk said Vice President Joe Biden also interviewed Thomas in a separate meeting. The source spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of Obama’s deliberations on choosing a nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who is retiring this summer. The White House had no comment.

— Associated Press