Please God, let me have read my last story about Mary Cheney's "Immaculate Conception.'' It grates, that's all, even more than when one of the smartest guys I know says, "Between you and I" -- though less than when the president says...anything at all, no matter how grammatical. (Why do I find it so much less irritating when W.'s buddy Tony Blair speaks, though he often says essentially the same thing? Presentation matters, is all I can figure.)
Anyway, here is the thing: The Immaculate Conception refers to the dogma that Mary (the Virgin Mary, that is) was born without original sin. It has nothing to do with sex, or with how Jesus was conceived. The belief that Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, without a human father, is called the Virgin Birth. OK, I feel better now.
One of the less objectionable things our president said this week, actually, was that he is happy for Mary Cheney, who with her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, is expecting their first child. Mr. Bush said the vice president's daughter will "make a fine mom'' and will "be a loving soul to her child.'' I don't doubt he is sincere in extending his best wishes. Yet I am churlish all the same, thinking about all the less lovely sentiments his support of a gay marriage ban has stirred up.
This has been quite a week for intolerance; Judith Regan reportedly went Gibson, imagining a conspiracy of "the Jews'' was out to get her. In the House of Representatives, Virginia Republican Virgil Goode warned that if Americans don't wake up and smell the incense, more Muslims could be elected to Congress. And in the Senate, Kansas Republican Sam Brownback blocked a vote on a judicial nominee because she had once attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for her neighbor's daughter.
No word on whether Mary Cheney's pending motherhood played any role in Brownback's change of heart; he's decided he'll allow the vote on the neighborly judge to go forward after all. But wasn't it interesting that the first thing the president said about the pregnancy news was, "I know Mary Cheney.'' Not like all those gay people we don't know? It's real people who make stereotypes and harsh pronouncements - and consistency itself -- so difficult, isn't it? But at least we can keep the Immaculate Conception straight.