Apparently there are other people pulling George W. Bush's strings, because apparently Dick Cheney doesn't pull all of them. The Vice-President was confronted about his views on Gay rights in a Town Hall meeting in the battleground state of Iowa today, and sang a different tune than the one in the official W hymnal. Quoth Cheney:

"With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone.... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.

"The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that's been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage,"

This puts Cheney directly at odds with the GOP Party Platform, which is being hammered out in advance of the GOP convention, to begin this coming Monday in New York City.

Meanwhile, Max Cleland, a man who lost two legs and an arm to the Vietnam War and an Senatorial election to a salacious GOP smear campaign in 2002, is now challenging W on the notorious "Swift Boat Veterans" ads. Understandably, he takes the current controversy seriously...and personally.