Because in the end, the birth of a baby is to be celebrated.

Vice President Dick Cheney is a grandfather for the sixth time.

According to the vice president's office, Cheney's daughter, Mary Cheney, 37, and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, welcomed 8 lbs., 6 oz. Samuel David Cheney into the world at 9:46 this morning at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Now some conservatives did themselves great discredit with negative responses to the announcement of the pregnancy some months ago. Even if one accepts the notion that the best environment for a child is a two-parent family with a married father and mother (and that is my view), and even if one believes that encouraging such families is proper policy, once there is a pregnancy we are morally obliged as a society to give support to th mother and a joyous welcome to the new child among us.