First off, I would say professional diplomacy. But more importantly, Cheney is still obligated by law and his prior position as VP to maintain silence on issues that have not been fully declassified by the govt.
As an example, the above link to a CNN article in 2008 where the Pentagon had revealed that in 2005 Canada had purchased Iraq's uranium. I'm sure there's a reason why the US never before mentioned that the uranium had been located, it certainly could have put a partial end to the libtards claims that Hussein never had any uranium and it would immediately put an end to Jack Wilson's bogus claim that Hussein never purchased the uranium from Niger......
There is so much VP Cheney knows but unfortunately he's limited to what he can say and how he can say it.......
Regardles of what anyone else thinks, I felt VP Cheney handled the question very well and politely put Mrs. Kelly in her place without being confrontative or insulting....that is an art form.
I read about that uranium. It was yellow cake uranium, which Iraq first tried to sell on the commercial market, with no luck, before sending it to Canada. The article said that the commercial price of yellow cake uranium at the time was $60 a pound. Again, it is not a WMD. As to whether it could be used to create a WMD, I don’t know. Seems like it could.
As to whether Cheney had to maintain silence on classified materials, he could certainly have revealed anything he and Bush wanted while they were President and VP. They revealed a lot of classified material leading up to the war. So at least until 2008, if they had found WMDs, they would have been free to spell out the details.
After that, you are probably right, they would be unable to reveal details. But I think Cheney could certainly have said, “But you are wrong. We did find WMDs” without going into the details.
And yes, I agree with you. I thought Mrs. Kelly was being very aggressive and insulting, and Cheney handled her with his usual aplomb. Very few people in the public arena are as good at dealing with the press as VP Cheney.