(CNN) — Liz Cheney, former State Department official and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, defended her father's string of tough comments aimed at President Obama, telling an interviewer that the former VP believes the new president is taking the nation down a "dangerous" path and that he has an "obligation to stand up."
"I think he is concerned that some of the things that we have seen President Obama do, particularly on his overseas trip in terms of not taking the opportunity to stand up and defend America when Daniel Ortega delivers a 50-minute screed against the United States [during the Summit of the Americas]," she told MSNBC in an interview that aired Thursday.
"I think that there's a real concern. I mean, the message that we saw coming out of the last few foreign trips — I mean, forget Republican and Democrat, as an American it concerns me when I have a president that doesn't stand up and say, 'Wait a minute, you know, I'm going to defend the United States of America because we are a beacon of hope for people all around the world,'" she said.
"The vice president thinks it's very important, when you see the country go down paths that are concerning and dangerous, and when you see the current administration making decisions that really do have the potential to make us less safe, in those circumstances I would say the vice president doesn't think there's an obligation to be silent — in fact, I think he believes the opposite, which is there's an obligation to stand up…" she said.
Former President Bush has said publicly that the new president deserves his silence. Cheney said her father had not sought the former president's approval for his recent comments. "He doesn't need permission," she said.
The former vice president has been increasingly vocal in his criticism of the new administration, telling CNN in an interview last month that Obama's decisions had put the country at greater risk of a terrorist attack.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/24/liz-cheney-obama-doesnt-stand-up-and-defend-america/#more-48838