Political Hotsheet
By

Brian Montopoli /

CBS News/ April 8, 2010, 8:38 PM

Liz Cheney: Obama Putting America on Path to Decline

AP

NEW ORLEANS -- Liz Cheney kicked off the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here Thursday night with a direct and unapologetic speech attacking President Obama for his health care push, intelligence posture and foreign policy.

Cheney told the roughly 3,500 conservative activists and donors gathered for the conference that there are three prongs to the president's foreign policy: "apologize for America, abandon our allies and appease our enemies."

"The Obama administration is putting us on the path to decline," added Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

She criticized the administration for the "shabby reception" given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington recently, which she deemed "disgraceful."

"President Obama is playing a reckless game if he continues down the path of diminishing the United States' ties to Israel," she said, deeming the world safer when there is "no daylight" between the two countries.

Cheney criticized the administration for expressing concerns about Afghan president Hamid Karzai, and not categorically casting the Afghan leader as an ally. The posture, she said, marked a "dangerous and juvenile display."

On Iran, she deemed the president's deadlines "meaningless" and his speeches "pointless." She said that Mr. Obama's response to the protests following that country's election suggested he was "much more concerned about whether the mullahs in Iran would be offended by his actions."

Threats of "watered down sanctions," she added, are just "buying time for the Iranians" to increase their capacity to attack.

She said Mr. Obama's recently-unveiled nuclear policy displayed his "naivete about his views about America's enemies," because it sent those enemies the message that America would not strike back when attacked.

"President Obama, stop apologizing for this great nation and start defending it," she said.

Cheney, who co-founded a group called Keep America Safe that has been harshly critical of the Obama administration's plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, stressed that that facility must remain open. She said the administration needed to be reminded that "foreign terrorists do not have Constitutional rights."

Cheney said Mr. Obama has "degraded and diminished" America's intelligence gathering posture by revealing the details of the "enhanced interrogation program" used under the George W. Bush administration.

She complained that the Obama administration was wasting its time interrogating the CIA officers who were involved with that program. Those who were involved with enhanced interrogation, she said, obtained valuable information and are "American patriots" who "do not deserve to be scorned or hounded."

"This administration is confused about who the enemy is," said Cheney.

Cheney was repetedly interrupted with applause throughout her address, and at one point a man yelled out, "we want our country back!" Responded Cheney: "Amen to that."

"2010 is going to be a year of major challenge, and it's going to end with a major correction on Election Day," she said, referring to the midterm elections. She told her enthusiastic audience that "we deserve better policies and we deserve better leaders."

"There is nothing that convinces people of the rightness of conservative causes than seeing the alternative in action," she said.

Cheney also criticized the Obama administration for its health care push, stating that "President Obama's phony numbers are about to become our very real problem."

Passage of the health care bill, she added, was "one of the most arrogant power plays in American history."

More Coverage from the Southern Republican Leadership Conference:

Sarah Palin Fires Back at Obama, Mocks His "Experience" on Nuclear Issues
Jindal Jokes RNC Staffers Should Avoid Bourbon Street
Is This How Straw Polls are won?
"Evangelicals for Mitt" Step Into Romney Vacuum
Newt Gingrich: We Need a President, Not an Athlete
All Hotsheet Coverage of the SRLC

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
287 Comments Add a Comment
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Turbidite says:
America"s answer to "Leni" Riefenstahl. What was that famous line by Rogers & Hammerstein? "You've got to be taught to hate and fear." She has a good teacher in Dad.
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petewestwood says:
Is Liz looking for a visit to the loony bin, raising new money behind our backs, or just having us all on this memorial weekend. We?d like to think the latter?

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/05/liz-cheney-wants-to-investigate-everybody-except-her-daddy/
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americastrong says:
Sorry, everyone needs to wake up here ! Do you really believe with the insurance co. haveing 4 years before gov. regulates , that they are not going to increase rates with all the new customers they are now forced to cover !The gov. is taking more of our rights everyday , sure your not to nieve to see that.OBAMA ,is a fail ,now all of you and your children have to live with..WAKE UP AMERICA !Do as all my friends are doing , voting all rep. congress and senete
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mnguyen4 says:
Unlike Obama who was born to humble parents and raised by humble grandparents, Liz Cheney came from a very powerful and wealthy family. As a result, she was nothing more than a mediocre lawyer and mediocre political right-wing activist who got a break as a result of her parents? influence.

She got top jobs working with the State Department while her father was in office, even before she started law studies at U of Chicago. She also served in his re-election campaign in 2003. Her biography reminds one of W. Bush, the son of a powerful Washington politician.

Some pundits believe that Liz Cheney has a better chance to winning the Election than Sarah Palin. If this is the case, the United States of America is in bigger trouble. Doesn?t America have enough with these political dynasties like the Kennedys, the Bushes, or the Cheneys?
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Turbidite replies:
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How did Liz Cheney get upgraded to mediocre?
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HemiHead66 says:
God help us if these psychos take back this country. Did you hear Lez Cheney, after taxpayers footing the bill for 8 years in Afghanistan, she wants to kiss up to that corrupt drug dealer Karzai, so she can have a pal in Afghanistan. She wants to make sure nothing gets done so we can keep spending 700 billion a year on the war on terror. And her dear Israeli friends - the ones that cost the U.S. more money and lives than I can count. The only thing we seem to get from the is a spit in the face. And it's not just us that had it with them, it's the whole international community. 40+ years we've been playing their game. They think they can do as they please. And she just can't stop with the torture program & Guantanamo. She's trying to hide the truth. Did you read the headlines - Bush and Cheney knew hundreds of prisoners were innocent. They kept these people for years letting a few go at a time so it wouldn't damage the rep of their war on terror. Now they got more lawsuits to deal with over torture. But there'll be no justice for all the people that were tortured to death. You won't hear Cheney blabbing about this on TV. You want to read something that'll blow you mind? Here's the Department of Defense autopsy reports for all the people they murdered with the cuffs on. No charge! No trial! No proof of guilt! Innocent, like the others. http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/ On the right side of the page it'll say Homicide or natural death, in the middle it tells ya what happened to them. You won't believe it. To top it all off, McCain, & Lieberman, are trying to pass this sick bill - S-3081 - Enemy Belligerent bill, that allows American citizens to be held forever without charge or trial. It's difficult to even imagine something more blatantly unconstitutional. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th amendments all set out the forms of due process required of anyone detained by the government, especially citizens. These nuts should be tried as traitors and locked away in their favorite place - Guantanamo! Especially, Lez Cheney! I'm sure we can get her on aiding the enemy, or one of those other sick laws the PNAC Mafia passed to getcha.
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MYoung59 says:
News Flash to Lynn Cheney, your dad and Bush spent billions of dollars fighting a war over weapons of mass destruction, that nobody seems to have found yet. A war that has killed over 5,000 solders and who knows how many Iraqi and Afganistan civilians. Please don't take the air waves talking about who's taking who down the path of destruction. We were dropped off on the path of destruction back in 2002.
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starleo146 replies:
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Sorry Lyn your dad already accomplished that and Obama has the right to do it his way. No one could do any worse than Bush and Darth Vader
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jilbagh says:
Cheney said "we deserve better policies and we deserve better leaders."
if i remember correctly, those same reasons is why they lost control of congress in 2006
and Obama won in 2008?
and those same policies, those 'better leaders' came up with is what 44 is attempting to fix and repair?

Love the credibility, esp after Newt said Palin was "articulate"
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owlmaster says:
And of course Lizzy Cheney like Sara Pallin is an expert on foreign relations.
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am426 says:
The last good day in this country was November 21, 1963.
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speckles1956 says:
I just saw a Fox news segment on YouTube interviewing Dick Cheney about torturing civilians. If you look closely I swear Cheney has a boner.
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