Lynne Cheney came prepared to The Situation Room with the classic conservative tool--"liberal bias," as a way to deflect criticisms of her husband's awful water-boarding remarks. And did she ever apply it. Lynne Cheney never addressed Blitzer's initial question---ever.
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Download You really have to see this interview. She's a piece of work. She's acting all indignant about answering these questions as if she was really invited on "The Situation Room" today to talk about her children's book and Wolf is sandbagging her. The Queen of the Harpies is something else...read on
Liz Cheney really is a piece of work and sandbagged Blitzer. He was stunned.
BLITZER: It made it sound -- and there's been interpretation to this effect -- that he was in effect confirming that the United States used this waterboarding, this technique that has been rejected by the international community that simulates a prisoner being drowned, if you will, and he was in effect, supposedly, confirming that the United States has been using that.
CHENEY: No, Wolf -- that is a mighty house you're building on top of that mole hill there, a mighty mountain. This is complete distortion; he didn't say anything of the kind.
BLITZER: Because of the dunking of -- you know, using the water and the dunking.
CHENEY: Well, you know, I understand your point. It's kind of the point of a lot of people right now, to try to distort the administration's position, and if you really want to talk about that, I watched the program on CNN last night, which I though -- it's your 2006 voter program, which I thought was a terrible distortion of both the president and the vice president's position on many issues.
It seemed almost straight out of Democratic talking points using phrasing like "domestic surveillance" when it's not domestic surveillance that anyone has talked about or ever done. It's surveillance of terrorists. It's people who have al Qaeda connections calling into the United States. So I think we're in the season of distortion, and this is just one more.
BLITZER: But there have been some cases where innocent people have
been picked up, interrogated, held for long periods of time then simply
said never mind, let go -- they're let go.
CHENEY: Well, are you sure these people are innocent?
BLITZER: They're walking around free right now and nobody has
arrested them.
CHENEY: You made a point last night of a man who had a bookstore in
London where radical Islamists gathered who was in Afghanistan when the
Taliban were there, who went to Pakistan. You know, I think that you
might be a little careful before you declare this as a person with clean
hands.
BLITZER: You're referring to the CNN "BROKEN GOVERNMENT" special.
CHENEY: I certainly am.
BLITZER: This was the one that John King reported on last night.
CHENEY: Well, you know, right there, Wolf, "BROKEN GOVERNMENT."
Now, what kind of stance is that? Here we are. We're a country where
we have been mightily challenged over the past six years. We've been
through 9/11. We've been through Katrina.
The president and the vice president inherited a recession. We're a
country where the economy is healthy. That's not broken. This
government has acted very well. We've had tax cuts that are responsible
for our healthy economy. We're a country that was attacked five years
ago. We haven't been attacked since. What this government has done is
effective. That's not broken government.
So, you know, I shouldn't let media bias surprise me, but I worked
at CNN once.
BLITZER: You worked ...
(CROSSTALK)
CHENEY: I watched your program last night and I was troubled.
BLITZER: All right. Well, that was probably the purpose, to get
people to think, to get people to discuss these issues because ...
(CROSSTALK)
CHENEY: Well, all right, Wolf. I'm here to talk about my book, but
if you want to talk about distortion ...
BLITZER: We'll talk about your book.
CHENEY: Well, right, but what is CNN doing running terrorist tapes
of terrorists shooting Americans? I mean, I saw Duncan Hunter ask you a
very good question and you didn't answer it. Do you want us to win?
BLITZER: The answer is, of course, we want the United States to
win. We are Americans. There's no doubt about that. Do you think we
want terrorists to win?
CHENEY: Then why are you running terrorist propaganda?
BLITZER: With all due respect -- with all due respect, this is not
terrorist propaganda.
CHENEY: Oh, Wolf.
BLITZER: This is reporting the news which is what we do. We're not
partisan.
CHENEY: Where did you get the film?
BLITZER: We got the film -- look, this is an issue that has been
widely discussed. This is an issue that we have reported on
extensively. We make no apologies for showing that. That was a very
carefully considered decision, why we did that, and I think -- and I
think -- that if you're ...
CHENEY: Well, I think it's shocking.
BLITZER: ...a serious journalist, you want to report the news.
Sometimes the news is good, sometimes the news isn't so good but ...
CHENEY: But, Wolf, there's a difference between the news and
terrorist propaganda. Why ...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: And if you put it in context, that's what news is. We
said it was propaganda. We didn't distort where we got it. We didn't
distort anything about it. We gave it the context.
Let's talk about another issue in the news, then we'll get to the
book. This -- the Democrats are now complaining bitterly in this
Virginia race, George Allen using novels -- novels -- that Jim Webb, his
Democratic challenger, has written in which there are sexual references,
and they're making a big deal out of this. I want you to listen to what
Jim Webb said today in responding to this very sharp attack from George
Allen.
CHENEY: Now, do you promise, Wolf, that we're going to talk about
my book?
BLITZER: I do promise.
CHENEY: Because this seems to be a mighty long trip around the
merry-go-round.
BLITZER: I want you to -- this was in the news today and your name
has come up, so that's why we're talking about it, but listen to this.
(AUDIO CLIP PLAYED)
CHENEY: Jim Webb is full of baloney. I have never written anything
sexually explicit. His novels are full of sexual explicit references to
incest, sexually explicit references -- well, you know, I just don't
want my grandchildren to turn on the television set. This morning, Imus
was reading from the novels, and it -- it's triple-X rated.
BLITZER: Here's what the Democratic Party put out today, the
Democratic Congressional -- Senatorial Campaign Committee: "Lynne
Cheney's book featured brothels and attempted rape. In 1981, Vice
President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne, wrote a book called "Sisters",
which featured a lesbian love affair, brothels and attempted rapes."
CHENEY: No.
BLITZER: "In 1988, Lynn Cheney wrote about a Republican vice
president who dies of a heart attack while having sex with his
mistress." Is that true?
CHENEY: Nothing explicit. And actually, that was full of lies.
It's not -- it's just -- it's absolutely not a...
BLITZER: Did you write a book entitled "Sisters"?
CHENEY: I did write a book entitled "Sisters".
BLITZER: It did have lesbian characters.
CHENEY: This -- no, not necessarily. This description is a lie.
I'll stand on that.
BLITZER: There's nothing in there about rape and brothels?
CHENEY: Well, Wolf, could we talk about a children's book for a minute?
BLITZER: We can talk about the children's book. I just wanted to...
CHENEY: I think my segment is, like, 15 minutes long and we've had
about 10 minutes of...
BLITZER: I just wanted to -- I just wanted to clarify what's in the
news today, given -- this is...
CHENEY: That's lies and distortion. That's what it is.
BLITZER: This is an opportunity for you to explain on these
sensitive issues.
CHENEY: Wolf, I have nothing to explain. Jim Webb has a lot to
explain.
BLITZER: Well, he says he's only -- as a serious writer, novelist,
a fiction writer, he was doing basically what you were doing.
CHENEY: Jim Webb is full of baloney.
BLITZER: We'll leave it at that. Let's talk a little bit about
