Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
After putting out that appalling ad, Liz Cheney is now flat out lying and claiming that it doesn't question anyone's loyalties.
CHENEY: Well, what the ad does -- and actually it doesn't question anybody's loyalty. What the ad does is it says that there are nine lawyers in the Justice Department who used to represent al Qaeda terrorists and the Attorney General will only tell us who two of them are and we want the American people to have the right to know who the others are.
Oh bullshit. If that ad isn't questioning the loyalty of those lawyers, what else could it possibly mean?
Cheney is simply lying. Not only does the ad suggest that the lawyers might "share" the "values" of al Qaeda, but it also flashes an image of a headline from the far right Investor's Business Daily asking if the Justice Department was the "Department of Jihad?" "Just whose side are they on?" asked the editorial.When Politico's Smith first reported on the ad, Keep America Safe spokesman Michael Goldfarb gave him a quote that essentially accused the lawyers of treason, saying that they "did far more than represent criminals." "They have propagandized on behalf of our enemies, engaging in a worldwide smear campaign against the CIA, the U.S. military and the United States itself while we are at war," said Goldfarb. On Tuesday, Keep America Safe released a fundraising letter in Cheney's name that used the exact same language:
If claiming that those attorneys have turned the DOJ into the "Department of Jihad" and saying they have "propagandized on behalf of our enemies" is not calling them traitors and questioning their loyalties, then words simply have no meaning anymore.
Politics
Comments
A Cheney is lying. I guess it doesn't skip a generation.
Posted by: MikeMa | March 10, 2010 9:21 AM
I'm guessing that if you translated the Ad into a different language and had someone else translate it back, the phrase "Where is their loyalty?" would pop up at least 5 times out of ten. Because that's essentially what the Ad is after.
Posted by: Odie | March 10, 2010 9:41 AM
So she's negating the whole purpose of the ad in the first place. So, Liz, do you stand behind your statements or not? Do you secretly know you're spouting bullshit?
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | March 10, 2010 9:47 AM
10 to 1 she'll claim that she was "merely asking a question" in a day or two...
Posted by: Ira | March 10, 2010 9:51 AM
So she's negating the whole purpose of the ad in the first place.
Doubtful. While not a politician (yet?) she seems to be drawing from their playbook; make contradictory public statements with a nudge and a wink and let each side draw the conclusion that you agree with them. I'm sure she wants the pro-treason folks to think she agrees with them, and the pro-reality side to think she doesn't...and I'm also sure that her tactic will be effective in convincing some folks that she agrees with what(ever) they believe.
Posted by: eric | March 10, 2010 9:57 AM
... then words simply have no meaning anymore.
Did you miss the memos? Dig through your inbox for messages from Carroll, Lewis; Orwell, George; and Chomsky, Noam.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | March 10, 2010 10:07 AM
You would think someone brought up closer to technology as Liz Cheney was as opposed to her father, she'd have a better grasp of the memory hole. If you say it's black on Monday and white on Tuesday, the internet remembers Monday's comment. The legion of fools who lap up this treason crap may not be able to remember from one day to the next, but the (hopefully) larger population can and will remember her as a liar.
Of course being a liar, even a bad liar, may actually further qualify her as a future politician rather than the reverse.
Posted by: MikeMa | March 10, 2010 10:13 AM
Did Liz Cheney fund terrorist attacks on Americans with our own money? Liz Cheney headed the State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative in 2003. That year her group funneled $129 million into various Middle Eastern organizations, many of which have never been publicly identified. Why won't Cheney tell us who she gave money to? Why the secrecy? Whose values do they share? Tell Liz Cheney the American people have a right to know what secret Arab organizations she poured our tax dollars into.
::eyeroll::
Posted by: Abby Normal | March 10, 2010 10:14 AM
Why won't Liz Cheney also tell us if she was an accomplice to Glen Beck when he allegedly raped that little girl back in the 1980s? What else is she hiding?
Posted by: WRMartin | March 10, 2010 11:17 AM
How is Bill Kristol dodging all this same criticism? Is he pushing Cheney in front of a bus or what?
Posted by: DuggleBogey | March 10, 2010 11:36 AM
Saying that a Cheney lies is like saying Dog Bites Man. It isn't news.
If a Cheney were honest, THAT would be news.
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | March 10, 2010 11:42 AM
Liz was raised by a Dick, what else do you need to know?
Posted by: Connie | March 10, 2010 11:52 AM
Dahlia Lithwick has a similarly themed article over on Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2246903/
Posted by: Jeremy Shaffer | March 10, 2010 11:52 AM
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
Posted by: how | March 10, 2010 1:52 PM
This is somewhat OT, but I thought I'd mention it because someone here mentioned 'skipping a generation' and elsewhere someone confused Liz with sister (who it is impolite to say publicly is a lesbian, as Kerry found out) Mary.
Back in the 1990s if not earlier, Mary Cheney was hired by Coors to be their spokesgay, because of bad press and possible boycott due to Adolf Coors' support of right-wing causes. I'm sure the Internet hive-mind had compiled all the details.
Posted by: Uncle Glenny | March 10, 2010 1:54 PM
Of course she's lying. She'll probably be the Republican nominee for President in 2012!
Posted by: Teresa | March 12, 2010 12:20 AM