Liz Cheney is a bright, knowledgeable, and compelling voice on many issues – including in defense of her father. You can see for yourself here, in her appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Liz defends former Vice President Cheney decision to speak out and explains why the enhanced interrogation technique memos her father has asked to have declassified should be declassified. I’d add only one point to what she says. A lot of commentators are reacting with feigned horror that Dick Cheney is being vocal, as if this is plowing new and sacred ground. Of course it’s not. Al Gore spoke out repeatedly against the Bush Administration. The difference, of course, is that Cheney’s criticisms have been substantive rather than ad hominem, informed rather than deranged. During the Bush presidency Gore charged that Bush had brought “deep dishonor to our country” and had built a “durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon.” Gore said George W. Bush had “betrayed this country” and he called the president a “moral coward” and said that his Administration was allied with “digital brownshirts.”

Unlike Gore, who seems to have been consumed by bitterness over his loss to Bush in 2000, Cheney has acted as a responsible and knowledgeable public voice. One may disagree with Cheney’s views, but he has every right to express them and, in fact, the nation would be well-served all the way around if it engaged, in a serious manner, with the substance of his arguments.