Cheers & Jeers For Mary Cheney

Let's be clear from the jump that I am very happy for Mary Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe.

I have no problem with lesbians becoming impregnated so that they can have children, or gay men adopting children. But as the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, morning sickness is not going to be Mary Cheney's biggest pregnancy-releated problem over the next several months.

The grandparents to be are said to be very happy and are eagerly anticipating their sixth grandchild. But will the religious right be able to keep its powder dry? Nah.

TownHall blogger Kevin McCullough wasted no time:

"Knowing from scientific data that children excel best when given the full and natural parental structure of one mother and one father, is it moral to bring a child into such a scenario - purposefully, simply to stroke one's own desire to have a child - sort of like a new handbag, or pair of shoes?"

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America harrumphed that the pregnancy was "unconscionable."

"It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father. They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Then there is a niggling little residency issue.

Cheney and Poe, who have been together for 15 years, recently moved from Colorado to Virginia to be closer to the Cheyner family. Virginia voters recently approved a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions. This means that Poe will not have parental rights, and Cheney's rights may be shaky, as well.

Will the morality police come knocking on the door of the couple's condo after the little one arrives?