Cheney Daughter Also Rises -- at State Department

Reuters ^ | 02/15/05

[nypokerface]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, will become the second-ranking U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, the State Department said on Monday.

Cheney, who previously worked in the department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and left to work on her father's 2004 re-election campaign, will become the bureau's principal deputy assistant secretary of state.

This is the bureau's second ranking position and deputizes for the assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Cheney would also serve as "coordinator for Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives" -- a U.S.-backed idea to try to spread democratic and economic reform in the region.

"Her duties will include a focus on U.S. bilateral and multilateral efforts to support freedom, democracy and expanded education and economic opportunities in the broader Middle East and North Africa," he said.

[snugs]

A proud mother looks on whilst her youngest daughter is being held by GWB

The grandfather looks pretty proud as well.

To: Justacowgirl, for your interest Liz Cheney (Perry) thread

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

She didn't turn out bad herself did she and her mother has always worked?

Careful, some will blame Mrs. Cheney for Mary's lifestyle. I love that family and agree with your sentiments.

A working mother is not the equivalent of an absentee mother. I bet the Cheney & Perry families know what is important in life. I would not be surprised if she and her husband have arranged life so one of them is with the kids as much as possible. It is possible to balance a life and a career. As long as families do not lose sight of what is important.

[snugs]

**Careful, some will blame Mrs. Cheney for Mary's lifestyle. I love that family and agree with your sentiments.**

I must admit as I typed it I thought about the Mary comment being thrown at me but again it is obvious she loves them and they love her. I respect them for this whilst I may not agree with Mary's lifestyle but that is another story and another thread.

I agree entirely about your comments of balancing and it is obvious how the children behave with their parents that this is done correctly they are not strangers but a close family you can tell in the nature non awkward way the children behave.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Hard to imagine that this is based on merit.

Ever met her or spent any time with her?

I have. I was with her and some Afghan women this summer for several hours. She is an impressive woman and deserves this position. She is accomplished in her own right.

[WestCoastGal]

Cheney fan ping

[Antoninus]

Liz is a highly intelligent lady who needs this stimulation she would be discontented and under fulfilled and therefore not a good parent if she was with her children 24/7.

Yeah, parenting is *so* intellectually rotting and boring. What gibberish. Motherhood is the ultimate example of selflessness and the greatest investment a person can make in the future. It takes a superlative person to make a great mother. I feel bad for kids when their parents abandon them to chase fame and fortune. Duty is one thing, status and position is quite another.

[Antoninus]

I must admit as I typed it I thought about the Mary comment being thrown at me.

No need to throw it back at you. You're perceptive enough to pick it out on your own. You're just not wise enough, perhaps, to accept the truth for what it is.

[Ranger]

We've got 150,000 people at war in the middle east. This high level position needs to be unambiguously based on merit and an ability to influence world affairs. With all respect to her and your opinion and experience, this is a bad idea.

[Irish Rose]

What a cute picture. I'd bet the president would like grandchildren of his own.

[Irish Rose]

Does anyone know what this job would entail--whether some of it could be done from home, what travel would be involved and how frequently, etc.? From the pictures on this thread I gather she has not only small children but a small baby, and if he is breast-fed...

[Darkwolf377]

Agreed. As we say whenever some democrat's relative wins a job, "Of all the people in the nation, this is the very best one for the job?"

I'm not jumping to conclusions, I have no idea if her Middle East experience is wide and deep, and if anyone has info about that I'd love to read it so I can defend her against my liberal friends' attacks. I think it's great she's been a mom, and a good chatter on the TV shows, but what is her protfolio for getting one of the most important jobs in government?

Would we be praising her this way if she were former VP Gore's daughter, and had the exact same background?

[snugs]

**Yeah, parenting is *so* intellectually rotting and boring. What gibberish.**

I never said that; some people enjoy and are good at being with children all the time others may love their children but to be with them all the time is counter productive. I have a friend who is an excellent mother does loads of things with the children at weekends but freely admits she could not be with all day long and is a better mother for working outside the home with adult company and stimulation for part of the day.

***I feel bad for kids when their parents abandon them to chase fame and fortune. Duty is one thing, status and position is quite another***

The Perry children are not abandoned they are part of a secure loving family where they are being taught how to be what you are and not conform to what others expect of you especially if you are a Republican family. This is a modern family where women working outside the home is not only accepted but encouraged and is not seen as a dereliction of family duty.

[Ranger]

Right. The stakes are just too high.

[tbird5]

I have 5 children and I couldn't do it. Good luck for her marriage and her children. So much for family values in the RNC.

[Antoninus]

This is a modern family where women working outside the home is not only accepted but encouraged and is not seen as a dereliction of family duty.

Please. I know more women who feel forced to work and wish they could stay home with their kids. And more often than not, such "modern" marriages where husband and wife both work, end up in divorce. The "modern" family has produced no end of mental and emotional pathologies in its children. The credo of the "modern" family seems to be "It's all about me--my fulfillment, my desires, my occupational goals. The needs of the children are strictly secondary. They're nice to have on stage, though, for photo-ops."

The "modern" marriage is a disaster in progress and society has yet to suffer its full effects. I leave this thread with some quotes from Teddy Roosevelt:

On motherhood as the true source of progress, Teddy Roosevelt said:

"A more supreme instance of unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood cannot be imagined."

Before an audience of liberal Christian theologians in 1911, he said:

"If you do not believe in your own stock enough to see the stock kept up, then you are not good Americans, you are not patriots, and ... I for one shall not mourn your extinction; and in such event I shall welcome the advent of a new race that will take your place, because you wil have shown that you are not fit to cumber the ground."

On the centrality of the child-rich family to the very existence of the American nation:

"It is in the life of the family, upon which in the last analysis the whole welfare of the nation rests....The nation is nothing but the aggregate of the families within its borders."

On parenthood:

"No other success in life, not being President, or being wealthy, or going to college, or anything else, comes up to the success of the man and woman who can feel that they have done their duty and that their children and grandchildren rise up to call them blessed."

On out-of-wedlock birth versus practiced sterility:

"After all, such a vice may be compatible with a nation's continuing to live, and while there is life, even a life marred by wrong practices, there is a chance of reform.

In another place, on the same subject:

"...[W]hile there is life, there is hope, whereas nothing can be done with the dead."

On the behavior of 90% of those who practice birth control:

"[It is derived] from viciousness, coldness, shallow-heartedness, self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate aright the difference between the all-important and the unimportant."

On the "pitiable" child-rearing record of graduates of women's colleges like Vassar and Smith who bore only 0.86 of a child each during their lifetimes:

"Do these colleges teach 'domestic science'?... There is something radically wrong with the home training and school training that produces such results."

[snugs]

Some details of Liz Cheney(Perry)

*******
Professional Experience-
Deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Department of State, 2002-2003

-Attorney, White and Case, LLP, 1996-1999-

Director of vice-presidential debate preparation, Bush-Cheney Campaign, 2000-

Attorney (Middle East and Central Asia), International Finance Corporation, World Bank, 1999-2002-

Special assistant to the deputy secretary of state (U.S. assistance projects in the former Soviet Union and China), 1992-1993-

Interim representative in Poland; desk officer for China; project development officer in Hungary; U.S. Agency for International Development, 1989-1992-

Consultant (Kenya and Uganda election), International Republican Institute, 1993

Education
J.D., University of ChicagoB.A., Colorado College

---

As one can clearly see from the above her foreign affairs experience is extensive and clearly the position has been made on merit.

[Darkwolf377]

Thanks for the info, but the idea that one can "clearly" see this was based in merit is an opinion I don't share.