Cheney: Gay marriage “fine by me”

Whatever next from former Vice President Dick Cheney? Hard at work on his memoirs with daughter Liz, the former veep told Greta Van Susteren that when it comes to gay marriage, he’s cool with it:

“If that’s what the people of the state want to do, that’s fine by me,” Cheney said. “I made the announcement at the outset that I believe equal rights means equal rights for everybody and that people ought to be able to enter into any kind of relationship they want, but that the states ought to retain the ability to regulate and determine what’s marriage and what the legal status of those unions are. It should not be a federal issue.”

He said the same thing earlier at the National Press Club, adding that former President Bush set their administration’s anti-gay marriage policy. Cheney’s other daughter, Mary, is a lesbian. Mary Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, had a son in 2007.

“I look at it, obviously, in personal terms,” Cheney said. “And my daughter, Mary, is in a, you know, I think a very commendable relationship with somebody she’s known for a long time, and I’m strongly supportive of that.”

Cheney’s thoughts on the matter arrive just in time for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. President Obama signed the declaration — he’s not for gay marriage.