One of the too-good-to-check stories of American politics is that George Smathers beat Claude Pepper in a Florida Senate race by telling audiences that Pepper's sister was a "thespian.".

* One of the too-good-to-check stories of American politics is that George Smathers beat Claude Pepper in a Florida Senate race by telling audiences that Pepper's sister was a "thespian." Did John Kerry try a similar ploy in the third presidential debate? There, as all the world now knows, Kerry said, "We're all God's children ... 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." Everyone who follows these things knows that Mary Cheney is gay, but was Kerry outing her for the millions who don't follow these things, in the hope of prying off marginal Bush voters? (All Bush voters, he would assume, are bigots.) Or was he trying to highlight the "hypocrisy" of Republicans who love gay friends and family members while opposing gay marriage (as if the only way to express love were to endorse the gay agenda du jour)? Whatever his intentions, he was intrusive, as was John Edwards, his running mate, who focused on Mary Cheney in the vice-presidential debate, and as was Mary Beth Cahill, his campaign manager, who described her as "fair game." Bob Dole didn't discuss Al Gore's kids. One of the things that put one off the Kerry crowd is the suspicion that they think the personal is the political, and that therefore anything goes.