Liz Cheney, Defense Expert

CPAC2010David Keane, the president of the American Conservative Union, just introduced Liz Cheney as “one of the nation’s foremost experts in national security affairs” or something akin to that. Now, Cheney is a bright woman and has held some appointed foreign policy positions in the previous administration. The one where her father was vice president.

But, seriously, there must be thousands of people with better security credentials.

She’s an attorney, not a security studies scholar. And her experience has been at USAID and State, not DOD or the intel community. Her senior positions have been as Assistant SecState and then Principle Deputy Assistant SecState for Near Eastern Affairs. Where she oversaw economic development issues.

Now, I’m sure she picked up a lot of security policy information along the way. And her dad was Secretary of Defense once upon a time. But you could probably throw a rock in downtown DC and hit someone with comparable security expertise.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. DC Loser says:

    She probably stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

  2. Fog says:

    “But you could probably throw a rock in downtown DC and hit someone with comparable security expertise.”

    Quite true, but much harder to find one that argues that torturing people is a sign of moral seriousness.

  3. Franklin says:

    She probably stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

    LOL.

    Seriously, this woman gets caught lying at least once every time she gets interviewed. She is not someone that conservatives should be looking up to.

  4. Highlander says:

    Keane is a DC political hustler,who works the right side of the street. He wants to curry favor with the Cheney Clan for future bonus points.

    So he knows that the majority of conservatives he feeds his bullshit to,will just naively swallow it,and say how “yummy it is” just because it came from him. So what’s is there for him to lose by saying Liz Cheney is a security expert.

    For Keane it’s all about the opportunity to lick Dick Cheney’s shoes. He could care less what we think.

  5. reid says:

    Who cares? No one there or in the media is going to question her credentials. In the end, mumble-mumble Cheney, a security and foreign affairs mumble-mumble, called the Obama administration to task for being weak on security and foreign affairs. Repeat that last part as necessary to feed meme.

    Seriously: Thanks for questioning her credentials, James!

  6. Maggie Mama says:

    I believe that I am seeing a pattern forming of your growing distain for conservative women.

    I wonder if it is truly justifiable or if it subconsciously reflects your envy.

    The continued attacks on Palin and her success as a family bread-winner fomented my questioning and now this attack on Cheney seems to “seal the deal.”

    Time to look in the mirror? ? ?

  7. Triumph says:

    But you could probably throw a rock in downtown DC and hit someone with comparable security expertise.

    This broad showed today that she knows nothing about the military when she went to CPAC and called for letting the gays into the army.

    We would be the laughingstock if that happened–which is why the traitor Hussein Obama is so keen on opening the floodgates to the gays.

    Once they be in control we will be under the UN’s orders in no time.

    And Little Betsy Cheney is lining up with Hussein to destroy our military on this issue.

    She is no expert. She is a traitor.

  8. DL says:

    “She’s an attorney, not a security studies scholar. And her experience…”

    So this disqualifies her while the commander in chief in an inexperienced, affirmative action attorney who organized street gangs in the mode of Sol Alinski? The fact is that the whole world is a stage of phoneys with photoshop and media approved or dissaproved images and credentials. Selecting her, therefore, for discrediting is laughable.

  9. anjin-san says:

    Palin and her success as a family bread-winner

    You mean the success she obtained after bailing on the people who trusted her with their votes to be Governor?

    Guess her oath of office meant little to her when she saw all the bread that was hers for the taking…