Reasons to Love and Fear Liz Cheney

The former VP's daughter makes waves by founding an organization to attack Obama on national security

Liz Cheney wants you to be safe. But does President Obama? That's the message bloggers are talking about today as the former vice president's daughter unveiled an anti-Obama video from her new right-wing group, Keep America Safe. Conservative luminaries Bill Kristol and Michael Goldfarb joined forces with Cheney to create the group, which is dedicated to fighting Obama's "radical" foreign policy. Already, there are whispers on the right that Liz Cheney may be the next great hope of the Republican Party. Others say she has nothing to offer but failed ideas from her father's administration. Should she be taken seriously?

• Liz Cheney, 2012  At Commentary, Jennifer Rubin says Cheney is a rising star among conservatives. "You’d have to be blind not to recognize this as a platform not only for a conservative perspective on national security but also for Cheney herself. She has become the Right’s rock star on national security, and this will serve to keep her in the spotlight. The organization is nonpartisan, but Cheney is soon to be on short and long lists for elected office."

• Cheney the Younger Is No Joke, Michelle Cottle writes at The New Republic. Cottle takes digs at Cheney for her unswerving defense of her father, but warns that Cheney is a dangerous woman whose political career is just getting started. "Liz Cheney is a particularly dangerous combination of sweet-as-sugar looks and savage instincts. Going at her as roughly and directly as she does her opponents could backfire. But cutting her any slack--or sitting by as media types coo, gurgle, and make patronizing goo-goo eyes at her--is a good way to wind up stuck in the undercarriage of her SUV."

• Another Political Opportunist for Torture  At The American Prospect, Adam Serwer says Republicans like Liz Cheney "see a political opportunity in the open advocacy of torture, a chance to "rule" the country again." Serwer says Liz Cheney's PAC is just more evidence that it "isn't so much about principle as it is about power." And he says it's deeply concerning. "the embrace of one of torture by one of America's major political parties will have serious consequences for the United States in the long run, on our moral standing in the world, on the rule of law, and on our understanding of justice."
  

• 'When Liz Cheney, Debra Burlingame, and Bill Kristol Get Together, Awesome Happens,' Erick Erickson writes at Red State. "When those three get together, awesome things can happen and leftist heads that hate America will explode." Erickson's already signed up for the PAC. "If you want to be a part of it, you can sign up at the top right of the site," he writes. "I have. I hope you will."

• Liz Cheney Has Zero Credibility, Steve Benen writes at The Washington Monthly. He argues that Bush-Cheney were proven failures but that "self-reflection" is "not one of the neocons' strengths." Benen notes that neo-conservatives have "had their day. They got to do exactly what they wanted to do -- torture, preemptive war, abandoning the rule of law, abandoning democratic norms, alienating allies, ignoring the concept of international cooperation -- and they failed anyway."