Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter and political adviser, has revealed today that she is pregnant, bringing good news to the vice president's family and a very angry reaction from Christian conservatives.

Mary Cheney, left, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, sits with her partner, Heather Poe, in Madison Square Garden during the Republican National Convention in New York in this Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 file photo. Mary Cheney is pregnant, according to a published report. Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are 'ecstatic' about the baby, due in late spring, The Washington Post reported in Wednesday's editions, quoting an unnamed source close to the couple. [AP]

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby, said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for the vice president. The baby is due in late spring.

Many in this key Republican constituency say that it's a disaster for the vice president's daughter to have a child without an apparent father.

"The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation" to the arrival of their sixth grandchild, McBride said.

McBride would not answer questions about how the child was conceived, or say whether the vice president considered Heather Poe, Mary Cheney's partner of 15 years, the other mother of the child.

While Grandma and Grandpa Cheney are no doubt celebrating the pregnancy, the fact that their sixth grandchild will have two mommies is potentially awkward for the Bush administration.

The administration has called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and won re-election in 2004 in no small part because of its opposition to gay and lesbian marriage.

Many political observers believe that issue helped motivate Christian conservatives to the polls, especially in key swing states such as Ohio, where a statewide referendum banning same-sex marriage was on the ballot.

"I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman," President Bush said to the applause of an Iowa crowd on Oct. 26, 2006, after the New Jersey Supreme Court instructed the state legislature to provide the same legal rights to same-sex couples as to straight couples, leaving it up to lawmakers as to whether such arrangement would be called "marriage." "And I believe it's a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended."

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