Lynne Cheney repeatedly attacked CNN for having a liberal bias during a fiery and combative appearance today on the Situation Room.

Cheney said a CNN special that aired yesterday was a “terrible distortion of both the president and the vice president’s position on many issues,” in part because CNN used the phrase “domestic surveillance” to describe the so-called “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” When Wolf Blitzer pointed out that some individuals have been arrested and interrogated despite having no ties to terrorism, Cheney warned, “I think that you might be a little careful” declaring someone has “clean hands.”

Later, Cheney criticized Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb for including sexually explicit material in his novels. Asked whether her own novel Sisters had “lesbian characters,” Cheney said, “no, not necessarily. This description is a lie. I’ll stand on that.” In fact, her novel did contain multiple scenes describing a lesbian love affair.

Repeatedly, Cheney asked Wolf Blitzer to end his line of questioning and about her new children’s book.

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Former top White House contracting official David Safavian “wept as he asked for leniency in his obstruction of justice case Friday, telling a judge that his lobbyist friend Jack Abramoff manipulated him.” Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison for lying to federal investigators about his ties to Abramoff.

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Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called for sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq. The AP reports:

Republican Sen. John McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said Friday the United States should send another 20,000 troops to Iraq.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain said increasing U.S. forces would require expanding the standing Army and Marine Corps – a step the Bush administration has resisted. [...]

”Another 20,000 troops in Iraq, but that means expanding the Army and the Marine Corps,” he said.

McCain’s call for escalation would exacerbate the deteriorating situation in Iraq and would only further damage U.S. national security. Here’s at least two reasons why:

1) No troops to send. “Sending more troops to Iraq would, at the moment, threaten to break our nation’s all-volunteer Army and undermine our national security.” McCain suggests enlarging the force to send them to Iraq, an idea that is implausible to carry out over the short-term and would damage the military’s ability to recruit over the long-term.

2) The insurgency would grow more inflamed. “A more visible presence of U.S. troops risks further stoking the flames of the insurgency by feeding perceptions of long-term U.S. occupation among many Iraqis.” The recent effort to increase troop numbers in Baghdad has only increased violence. A recent poll of Iraqis indicated that support for attacks on US-led forces has grown to a majority position — now six in ten — a number sure to increase if more U.S. troops are put on the ground.

Phased withdrawal is gaining consensus as the last best option for Iraq. A growing group of experts — including the Iraq Study Group and host of conservative senators — are consolidating behind a redeployment. 63 percent of Americans believe Congress should set a timetable.

Vice President Cheney is under scrutiny for the following exchange with North Dakota radio host Scott Henen:

HENEN: And I’ve had people call and say, please, let the Vice President know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we’re all for it, if it saves American lives…Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It’s a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President “for torture.” We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in.

Cheney’s comments were widely understood as an endorsement of a practice called “waterboarding” — a technique where prisoner “who is bound and gagged has water poured over him to make him think he is about to drown.” (In 1947, the U.S. tried and convicted a Japanese officer with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian.)

Today, Press Secretary Tony Snow insisted that Cheney’s comments did not endorse waterboarding. Snow said that Cheney does not comment on specific interrogation techniques and is “not a guy who slips up.” ABC’s Ann Compton countered that Cheney “did go up and curse a senator to his face on the Senate floor and accidentally shot his friend.” Watch it:

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until November 5, two days before the U.S. election. Media Matters asks: Will the media turn a skeptical eye?