Liz Cheney: Dad Is Not a Crazy Old Coot

VP is a veritable font of nonsense

(NEWSER) - Isn’t it time we sent Dick Cheney back to Wyoming, found him a home “where the buffalo roam and there’s always room for one more crazy old coot down at the general store?” Eugene Robinson asks in the Washington Post. It’s no wonder the TV networks love him: “Unrestrained by protocol or objective reality, he’s pretty much guaranteed to say outrageous things.” More»

(NEWSER) - Dick Cheney's daughter stuck up for her dad today, insisting in an MSNBC interview that the CIA's interrogation techniques did not constitute torture, reports ThinkProgress. Liz Cheney, a former State Department official in her own right, also echoed her father's sentiment that the interrogations yielded valuable information. Two detainees "gave us incredibly important and useful information, information that saved American lives after they were waterboarded," she said. More»

She carries on dad's national security message, and her fan base is growing

(NEWSER) - Move over, Sarah Palin and Megan McCain—the GOP’s newest rising star is Liz Cheney, “our favorite vice president’s daughter,” as she was touted at a recent conservative gathering. Cheney—an outspoken proponent of “enhanced interrogation” who has said “waterboarding isn’t torture”—is “a red state rock star,” one event organizer tells the New York Times. She’s “one of the fresh faces of our movement,” adds a blogger. More»

Former VP's defense of torture full of half-truths, falsehoods: Froomkin

(NEWSER) - Since leaving government, Dick Cheney has realized that TV and newspapers will report anything he says, writes Dan Froomkin for the Huffington Post, even though "he is a monstrous liar”—remember Saddam's WMDs? "After years of speaking in whispers, operating by proxy, and leaving as few fingerprints as possible," Cheney can't seem to shut up—and no matter what he's selling, the media "will fail to put it in any context whatsoever." More»

Veep intervened when legislators got twitchy

(NEWSER) - Dick Cheney personally led at least four briefings with senior House and Senate members about harsh interrogation techniques, reports the Washington Post. The former vice president's interventions took place at critical moments when Congress was threatening to investigate or even outlaw techniques, such as waterboarding, that are widely considered torture. Although Cheney was a vocal advocate for the Bush administration's policies in public, his role in defending the program to Congress was previously unknown. More»