Back when Dick Cheney was getting excoriated for telling Pat Leahey to go "f" himself while on the floor of the Senate, I jumped for joy. Finally, somebody told the Vermont Senator something he needed to hear for a long time! Now THAT’S gravitas, I thought.
.
Behind every successful man is a good woman (I speak from personal experience on this) and Dick Cheney is no exception. His wife Lynne, a noted author and long time conservative activist is as sharp and well-spoken as her husband.
.
On CNN to discuss her book, she appeared with host Wolf Blitzer. Naturally, the appearance quickly turned to politics and, more particularly, the Bush administration’s recent criticisms from all sides, led in no small part by CNN and its recent "Broken Government" series. Lynne Cheney demonstrated that she can more than hold her own in defending her views. Broadcasting and Cable has the details:
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, strongly criticized CNN Friday for its "Broken Government" series of specials in the run-up to the November mid-term elections and for its airing of tapes of snipers shooting American soldiers in Iraq.
In an interview with Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer, Cheney said the network’s Vote 2006 specials contained "terrible distortions of the president’s and vice president’s positions on many issues."
She suggested CNN was working from Democratic talking points, and took issue with the negative tone of the title "Broken Government," suggesting it betrayed CNN’s bias and countering that the administration had inherited a recession, been through some tough times like 9/11 and Katrina, but that the economy was healthy. "That’s not broken, " she said, "this government has acted very well… I shouldn’t let media bias surprise me, but I worked for CNN once [with Crossfire, according to Blitzer], and I was troubled.
Blitzer said the series was "probably" meant to be provocative, "to get people to think, to get people to discuss these issues."
Cheney turned the tables on Blitzer, becoming the questioner: "what is CNN doing running tapes of terrorists shooting Americans," she asked more than once, repeating a question CNN had been asked: "Do you want us to win?"
Amen! When the cable news outlet shows footage taken of Islamic terrorists shooting at American soldiers, you do have to wonder if the enemy using so-called ’embedded’ reporters like we are? Is this the role of CNN reporters, but in an enemy camp? The US military does this to allow observation of our troops in the field in order to allow Americans an unaffiliated view of what our military is up to, and what they face. Yes, it is to also maintain the morale and support back on the homefront as well. Could it be that this is what CNN is doing for the enemy? Doesn’t that make them traitors?
.
She raises a point that has long needed to be made. Drudge has the transcript. This is my favorite part:
CHENEY: Right, but what is CNN doing? Running terrorist tape of terrorists shooting Americans. I mean, I thought [Rep.] Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question, and you didn’t answer it. Do you want us to win?WOLF: The answer of course is we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There’s no doubt about that.CHENEY: Then why are you running terrorist propaganda?WOLF: Well all do respect, this is not terrorist propaganda.CHENEY: Oh, Wolf.WOLF: This is reporting the news. Which is what we do, we are not partisan.CHENEY: Where did you get the film?WOLF: We got the film, look, this is an issue that has been widely discussed. This is an issue we reported on extensively. We make no apologies for showing that. That was a very carefully-considered decision why we did that. And I think, I think —CHENEY: Well I think it’s shocking.WOLF: If you are a serious journalist, you want to report the news. Sometimes the news is good, sometimes the news isn’t so good.CHENEY: But Wolf, there’s a difference between news and terrorist propaganda.
Now THAT’S gravitas! You go girl!