Did you hear? Vice president Dick Cheney thinks the world of BOTH his daughters – even the gay one. With the news that daughter Mary and her partner Heather are expecting a child, Cheney has tried to downplay the subject by normalizing it by saying something along the lines of: “I love all of my grandchildren, OK?! Yes, all of them!”

More power to him, but the crazies on the right wing of his own party just aren’t having it. Focus on the Family released a statement questioning Mary’s judgment for daring “to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father,” and the organization’s leader, Dr. James Dobson, decried the pregnancy in a TIME op-ed piece titled “Two Mommies Is One Too Many.”

And then the unthinkable happened. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, in an interview with the Vice President last week, had the audacity to give Cheney a chance to respond to the far right’s criticism of his daughter. Cheney declined, and the following exchange ensued:

BLITZER: She’s, obviously, a good daughter –

CHENEY: I’m delighted I’m about to have a sixth grandchild, Wolf. And obviously I think the world of both my daughters and all of my grandchildren. And I think, frankly, you’re out of line with that question.

BLITZER: I think all of us appreciate –

CHENEY: I think you’re out of line.

Out of line? Really? I realize that Cheney probably does not want to go on record criticizing remarks made by the socially conservative base that comprises most of the 30-35 percent of the American public that hasn’t abandoned the Bush administration. It’s hard to stand up to the people who bankroll your party. Cheney is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who’s likely to sidestep any question that could further divide a Republican already coming apart over Iraq.

Cheney has the right not to have a backbone on this issue. But it’s a little over-the-top to respond with incredulity when presented with an opportunity to defend your own daughter against the implication that she isn’t fit to raise a child. Give me a break. If the vice president truly does not have a problem with his daughter being gay, then it looks a little strange when he has this sort of uncomfortable “How dare you?” reaction to an entirely appropriate question about it.

We’ve seen this so-called outrage before. During a 2004 presidential debate between Sen. John Kerry and President George W. Bush, moderator Bob Schieffer asked Kerry whether homosexuality is a choice, to which Kerry responded, “We’re all God’s children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was. She’s being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it’s not a choice.”

The following day, Cheney declared himself “a pretty angry father.” A rather odd reaction, considering that days before, the vice president all but hugged Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards during their debate after Edwards said that he had “respect for the fact” that Cheney and wife Lynne were “willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her.” I don’t sense enough of a difference between Kerry’s and Edwards’ statements for Cheney to say “Thank you!” to one man and “Bark!” to the other.

He saw an opportunity to spin Kerry’s comments into something politically advantageous for the Republican ticket.

All it took this time was the same baseless reaction he used with Blitzer: You’re out of line.

It’s time to face the music, Dick. Your daughter’s sexual orientation and pregnancy are fair game when you serve as the right-hand man to a president who repeatedly pushed for a constitutional amendment to block her access to equal rights that could make her life, and the lives of your grandchildren, a whole lot better. This is the second round of your indignation act, and it’s even less convincing than the first.