Second Lady Lynne Cheney on Her CNN 'Slapdown'; New Children's Book

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 6, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Impact" segment tonight, you may remember just over a week ago, Lynne Cheney, wife of the vice president, went on CNN to promote her new book "Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America." Well, during that interview with [anchor] Wolf Blitzer, Ms. Cheney got a little heated:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNNE CHENEY, AUTHOR AND WIFE OF VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Well, what is CNN doing, running terrorist tapes of terrorists shooting Americans? I mean, I thought [Rep.] Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question and you didn't answer it. Do you want us to win?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Well, Lynne Cheney joins us from Washington. Poor Wolf Blitzer. You know, he hasn't recovered from that. He's still in shock. And I saw him just wandering around Sixth Avenue here in New York City going, "I didn't mean it, I didn't".

So you were really tough on him.

CHENEY: Well, it was unintentional. It just happened, though, that I had watched the CNN series called "Broken Government" the night before because they had a large segment on the vice president. And it really sent my mind spinning, thinking about the distorted view people were getting of the vice president, distorted view they were getting of the government. And then of course, I'd also seen the footage of American soldiers being killed.

O'REILLY: Right, well, number one.

CHENEY: And that struck me as terrible.

O'REILLY: Number one, you're watching too much CNN.

CHENEY: Well, I.

O'REILLY: You got to be, you know.

CHENEY: .I'll try to explain. It was because they were doing a segment on the vice president.

O'REILLY: No, I understand --I'm just kidding you.

CHENEY: I do try to limit my exposure to hostile media. You have to for the sake of your sanity.

O'REILLY: That's interesting, "hostile media." A George Mason University study came out a couple of weeks ago and said that in this election cycle, 77 percent of the network news, NBC, CBS, ABC was favorable to Democrats. Only 19 percent favorable to Republicans.

Why is that, madam?

CHENEY: Well, I think it betrays the feelings of the people who are reporting the news. We used to be told, and we've been told this time and again, that the political leanings of reporters didn't matter because they sought objectivity, and they tried to be fair and balanced.

But statistics like that show that this doesn't work. We've even gone through a period, and we saw this in the 2004 cycle, where the suggestion was made that you can't be fair and balanced. This was someone from ABC making this point. You can't be fair and balanced because the Republicans deserved to be treated more harshly.

So there's a real problem with a lack of diversity in news rooms as far as political opinions go.

O'REILLY: Now do you believe that it gets personal towards your husband, it crosses the line? Look, I'm sure you respect, as I do, dissent in the Iraq War. I mean, the Iraq war has been very difficult for all Americans to watch what has happened over there. And I'm sure you respect it.

CHENEY: Yes.

O'REILLY: I'm sure your husband does.

CHENEY: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: I know President Bush does. OK? But it gets personal. It crosses the line. -- "Bush is a liar," "Cheney is a puppeteer." "They're evil men, they're immoral men, they're war mongers." Now how much of that do you take personally?

CHENEY: Well, I try not to take it in. You know, as I say, I try to limit my exposure to hostile media, because it really is...

O'REILLY: Well, do you read The Washington Post, The New York Times and major urban newspapers, because that's everyday they're doing that?

CHENEY: You know, what I do, what I do is I look at the headlines. I kind of glance at the editorial page to see if there's anything there I really need to know. And if I really don't need to know it, I don't read it.

O'REILLY: Does your husband get angry about this kind of stuff?

CHENEY: No. You know, I really think that this kind of politics, the attack on person, the ad hominem argument really affect the people around those who are being attacked more than they affect the people who are really out there in the arena, doing battle every day.

O'REILLY: Yes, but here's.

CHENEY: Dick's very serene about it.

O'REILLY: Here's something that has to affect him, when his approval rating is 28 percent.

CHENEY: Well, but...

O'REILLY: I mean, here's a guy going to work every day, and we assume he's trying to do the best for the country, and we assume all elected officials are. And he goes in. And 28 percent of Americans think he's doing a good job. And everybody else doesn't. That's got to affect him, does it not?

CHENEY: You know, that -- you're assuming that you do what you do every day based upon how you'd like to appear in the polls.

And I think we did see that kind of governance under Bill Clinton. You have not seen it on the part of the president or the vice president, particularly in the case of Iraq. They know what they're doing is the right thing. And you cannot be poll-driven when the issues are so great. And the outcome has consequences...

O'REILLY: But isn't it discouraging that so few Americans approve of the vice president's job performance?

CHENEY: Well, what it does is emphasize how important it is that we keep getting the message out on Iraq against a hostile media.

I think that The Wall Street Journal had a piece today about how incredibly intense the hostility toward the war has been from the beginning, that even in the beginning when we were invading Baghdad and throwing Saddam Hussein out of power, 51 percent of the news was negative coming from Baghdad, and it's only increased.

O'REILLY: They didn't like the war. As soon as the WMDs went up into smoke, they didn't like it. But.

CHENEY: Well, I think even before that, actually.

O'REILLY: But there is a legitimate point to say war is a performance business. And after three and a half years, we're really not seeing a lot of improvement over there. And you know, Americans are dying. So that's a legitimate point.

CHENEY: Well, and it absolutely is. But one of the reasons that I emphasize the importance of historical knowledge is that these things take a long time.

We look at our own history, it was, let me see, 11 years from1776 to 1787 when we had a Constitution. It was 13 years before we made the transition from independence to the Bill of Rights. It was 15 years before we had real peace. You know, we had armed resurrections in our own country during this time period.

O'REILLY: Oh, absolutely. And same thing with the Civil War. And it just goes on and on.

Now when we come back, take a break, I want to talk to Ms. Cheney about her book, because she's trying to get families together. And the kids don't want any part of the parents. So I want to figure out how to bridge that gap.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'REILLY: Continuing now with Lynne Cheney, the author of the number one book on The New York Times children's book list, that must tee them off, "Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America."

I love it when you and I are dominating The New York Times bestseller list, because you know they're just sitting there going "Oh."

One of the big problems getting kids and their parents together for trips, the kids don't want to go. They've got the iPods, the cell phone, the BlackBerries. They've got, you know, I mean, your head's going to explode. How do you get kids, say age 10 to 15, to say look, we want to go to Valley Forge. We want to see the great things in America. We want to teach you a little bit about the country? I don't want to go. How do you do it?

CHENEY: You know, my husband used to take our daughters to every Civil War site within range of Washington, D.C., which is quite a large number. And they regularly complained. And they complained all the way there. They didn't complain while they were there, but they would complain all the way home.

And to this day, they are avid readers of history and passionate about learning more about this country. So you know, I think part of the deal is the parents are boss. And you have to say...

O'REILLY: You've got to go.

CHENEY: ...this is what we're going to do this week.

O'REILLY: That's right.

CHENEY: But.

O'REILLY: No water slides. We're going to Valley Forge and you're going to like it.

CHENEY: What I really hope is that the book makes clear to families and to kids how amazing the country is, and how many wonderful things there are to see.

And while we emphasize the sites, you know, like Gettysburg and Constitution Hall in Pennsylvania, for example, we also try to talk about some of the funny and quirky things you learn when you go on a road trip, that the largest ball of twine in the world is in Cocker City, Kansas, that Maine has no poisonous snakes. I mean, I now know wonderful facts like this because I think kids like that kind of stuff.

O'REILLY: Yes, any trivia you can get in there. But I have to say, I've been to every state and every major city in the country and made it my passion to do that. You live in a great place, Wyoming.

CHENEY: It's so beautiful.

O'REILLY: I took my little daughter there. And the Snake River area and there's horses and there's this and there's that. So the trade is you have one day where they like something, and then you drag them off to Devil's Tower the next day or whatever, you know, the Custer battlefield.

And then I found it's pretty easy to do it if you just negotiate that kind of thing. And you always say, well, we may see a bear and the bear may eat daddy. And they like -- oh, yes, let's do that. So it's creative.

But your book is fun because it isn't, you know, a heavy duty thing. And it's like a travelogue. And I agree with you. Once you get those kids out there, they learn an enormous amount. And they never forget it. They remember those trips forever.

CHENEY: But it's also important, and you know, we were talking about the kind of negativity that we have on the news now, on television constantly. It's really important for each of us, ourselves to step back and say what an amazing place this country is.

O'REILLY: Oh, yes.

CHENEY: But it's even more important to let our kids know how lucky they are to be Americans, and how many places and events and cultural things there are to show the richness and diversity of this country.

It was fun to work on the book, you know, to think about everything from jazz in New Orleans, to mariachi music in Texas, to the Boston Philharmonic, as part of the diversity of the country. And everything from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge, to the Tetons in Wyoming to the Mississippi River. We are so lucky to be Americans. And that's the crux of the book.

O'REILLY: We are. It's a tremendous country. And kids particularly have got to know about it. They're not getting it in school. So the parents have got to do it.

"Our 50 States" is the name of the book. Mrs. Cheney, a pleasure to see you. Thank you very much.

CHENEY: Good to see you, Bill.

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