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Whopper of the Week: Lynne Cheney

Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, Feb. 9, 2001, at 10:47 AM ET

"I don't remember the plot."
--Lynne Cheney to New York Times reporter Melinda Henneberger on being asked to comment on the 1981 novel, Sisters.

"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."
--Love letter from one woman character to another in Sisters, as quoted by Henneberger.

Lynne Cheney
--Author of Sisters.

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[Notes from the Fray Editor: There was some discussion on whether it was likely that Ms Cheney remembers the plot of her novel. Whizzer, the terror of The Fray, commented that he had written things he didn't remember the next day. That's convenient for you, Whizzer, but be aware that the Fray Editor remembers.]


Chatterbox's rules for a "Whopper of the Week" stipulate that "an entry must be an unambiguous lie paired with an unambiguous refutation, and that both be derived from some appropriately reliable public source."

But the evidence he gives concerning Ms. Cheney is only that she once knew the plot of her 1981 novel (since she wrote it) but now says she does not know the plot of that same novel. Is she telling the truth when she says that she doesn't remember it? I'd bet not. But Chatterbox's rules require the evidence that she is lying be evidence that she does now remember the plot--eg recent quotes from her detailing the plot of that novel. So the entry should have been disqualified.

Surely there were more important lies this week that deserve unmasking. The country would be well-served by plain evidence, on the record, that the Bush Administration knows that its proposed tax cut won't appreciably reduce the working poor's overall tax burden--including payroll taxes, which are untouched by the Bush plan. Ferreting out and publicizing such evidence would be a worthy job for any political journalist.

--Andrew Hamilton

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