Liz Cheney, 'Red State Rock Star'

Although former Vice President Dick Cheney has taken a lower profile recently, his eldest daughter, Liz Cheney, has become an in-demand spokeswoman for conservative causes and a hot property on network and cable news shows alike.

Monday, the New York Times put Liz Cheney on its front page, with an in-depth profile of the woman one Republican described as "a red state rock star."

Mark Leibovich writes that since leaving the State Department in 2008, Cheney has divided her time between helping her father write his memoirs, speaking out on national security issues through network and cable television appearances, and giving speeches to conservative audiences. Leibovich attended one such speech in Nashville, where he reports Cheney was mobbed by fans and well-wishers. "By speech's end," he writes, "the crowd was standing, and the former vice president's daughter was being mobbed for photos and hounded to run for office."

Outside of the public eye, the 43-year-old Cheney is married and has five children. Her younger sister, Mary Cheney, also has a child with a longtime gay partner. Mary Cheney made headlines during George W. Bush's presidential campaign when her father defended her amid controversy over her lifestyle. In 2007, Dick Cheney warned CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he was "over the line" asking about conservative criticism over Mary Cheney's choice to have a baby with her partner.

The Cheney daughters grew up in suburban Washington, D.C., as their father moved through a series of jobs in the public sector, including as a congressman from Wyoming, chief of staff to President Gerald Ford, and Secretary of Defense for President George H.W. Bush.

After graduating from Colorado College and law school at the University of Chicago, Liz Cheney worked at a law firm, as a consultant and in a series of foreign policy jobs in the federal government, including the State Department, under George W. Bush.

Drawing on her foreign policy background, Cheney has recently become one of the most aggressive and visible defenders of Bush-era policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the war on terror. Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in May, she fought back against the notion that her father should stop speaking out against the Obama administration's national security policies. "It would be the easiest thing in the world for my father to go fishing and spend time with his grandkids," she said. "He knows at the end of the day it's important to be speaking out because of the future of the nation."

Despite her new role sparring with cable hosts and Democrats, the Times notes that Cheney achieves a "sunnier disposition" than her father ever could, and quotes a Republican blogger calling her "one of the fresh faces of our movement."

Liz Cheney has not said whether she'll follow in her father's footsteps and run for office, but when a member of the Nashville audience asked if she would ever consider it, Cheney responded, "We'll see."