Lynne Cheney Goes on 'On the Record'

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," June 27, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Today we sat down in the vice president's home with his author and historian wife Lynne Cheney and talked about an issue that is very close to her heart. Lynne wants our school children to love history as much as she does.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Why do you like history so much?

LYNNE CHENEY, SECOND LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: You know I think it's for the perspective it gives you every day when you get up and live your life. A great man once said, his name was Charles Frankel, and he was a professor of the humanities, he once said that knowing about history, knowing about the humanities is a little like knowing about baseball when you go to the baseball game.

And, if you sit in the baseball game and you watch it and you don't know the rules and you don't know the history you simply won't enjoy it as much. It gives you a context and a depth of understanding that you don't have otherwise. And I think the same is true of history.

You know, you watch the news on television. I think that having historical perspective helps you have context and deeper understanding of that. You deal with your children and your grandchildren and the problems that they face and the joys that they have and I think history deepens that experience too.

VAN SUSTEREN: The entertainment industry in 1992 Vice President Quayle gave a speech that many thought was — many people were critical of because he talked about sort of the values in Hollywood because of "Murphy Brown" was a sitcom popular then and he thought that it glorified single mothers. What do you think about what Vice President Quayle said in '92 and where we are now on Hollywood?

CHENEY: You know every parent I know and every grandparent I know is concerned about this and are, you know, such careful monitors of what their children watch, children and grandchildren. I don't watch sitcoms enough to be able to give you a broad commentary on it.

But I think Dan Quayle was making a point that's very important and it seems to me that it's one that, you know, should call us all into action, at least in a personal sense in monitoring what young people see and what they hear.

There was a time which I did watch sitcoms. I certainly don't now. I mean I just don't find them — I don't find them amusing for the most part, which doesn't mean I don't watch television. I'm a great fan of "24" for example.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you watched all five years?

CHENEY: I have. I even bought it on DVD the first couple seasons. It's great to exercise to in the morning. You know you put a CD in. You get one episode. You get about 46, 47 minutes of work on your elliptical trainer or, you know, doing some stretching, so it makes the exercise time pass fast and it's a great program.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you really like to exercise? I mean what's the truth I mean?

CHENEY: No, that's why I watch "24." But I do feel better all day long if I've done it.

VAN SUSTEREN: How about the vice president does he exercise daily?

CHENEY: Not daily. He gets in maybe four, five days a week and he rides the recumbent bike. That's what he likes to do.

VAN SUSTEREN: Does he like to exercise?

CHENEY: No and, again, both of us I think the ideal set up is to have a recumbent bike, a television set, and some DVDs you like and it just sort of makes you, helps your mind go someplace else while you're working your body.

VAN SUSTEREN: Election is coming up, midterm, I think we all have our eye on '08, maybe some have their eye on the midterm.

CHENEY: Well, I certainly have my eye on the midterm.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, yes, I understand but...

CHENEY: And the vice president does. I think he's done 70-some fundraisers now for Republican candidates around the country. The agenda that the president has set is an important one and having a Republican Congress will be important to carrying it out.

VAN SUSTEREN: What would you do if you woke up one morning and the vice president said, "I changed my mind. I've decided I think I'd like to run for president."

CHENEY: Well, I think I'd probably give him 24 hours to come back to his senses. We're both looking forward, you know, very much to the next two years but both of us very clear eyed about the fact that, you know, then we'll go back to private life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Coming up, have you ever been inside the vice president's house? Well, you will tonight. A few hours ago we went there with our cameras. Maybe we should also have brought rain gear. You're going to see why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: Earlier today we went inside the home of the vice president and Lynne Cheney. She talked about bringing history to our children and making them love it. And then a special treat, your private tour of the vice president's house and, yes, their house has normal problems too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: So where was your water damage?

CHENEY: It's in the dining room and they have killed themselves to get it back together because they knew you were coming.

VAN SUSTEREN: For us they did that?

CHENEY: Yes. This is not the rug that's usually there. The rug that's usually there is soaking wet and being dried somewhere.

VAN SUSTEREN: Really?

CHENEY: And look up at the ceiling. This little pipe not having been connected wasn't an issue until we got six inches of rain or whatever it was fell on top of it.

VAN SUSTEREN: I suppose most people don't realize that the vice president's house, the vice president's wife has the same sort of, you know, water damage that...

CHENEY: Well, we do have a lot of alarms that go off when anything like that happens.

VAN SUSTEREN: Even water?

CHENEY: People who come, you know, quickly to fix things though.

VAN SUSTEREN: But will alarms go off with water? I mean not with water?

CHENEY: Am I telling a national secret here? I don't think so.

VAN SUSTEREN: I think, maybe I'm wrong, but this is a nicer place to live than the White House because the White House you've got your office there. You've got people running around and you've got quarters. This is private.

CHENEY: Well, that's true. That's a big advantage. But the history of the White House is really unmatched. It's an amazing place to walk in and, you know, to see the Andrew Jackson tree or to go inside and see the quote from John Adams on the fireplace, see the portrait of Lincoln hanging over the fireplace, to see the portraits of Martha Washington and George Washington, George Washington famously saved by Dolly Madison when the British burned the White House in 1814.

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, but you can see all those lovely things but if you're the president you've also got hundreds of people around you at all times and you go through at least — at least here you've got, you know, a very stately place and beautiful grounds and a lot of privacy and you can go down and look at the White House when you want to.

CHENEY: Well that's true. We're very lucky, no doubt about that. Do you love this? This is by a young artist. She's probably in her 40s, Nancy Lorenz (ph) in New York City. We've had it now for six years. I love it and I think that, you know, for Nancy it's a wonderful opportunity to have lots of people see her work. She's very well established now, very successful.

VAN SUSTEREN: So what happens when there's a change in administrations? Does this stay with it or return to her?

CHENEY: No.

VAN SUSTEREN: It goes back.

CHENEY: It will return.

VAN SUSTEREN: They just pack it up and what does she do with it then, just sell it?

CHENEY: I don't know but, you know, there are special people. You don't just say, OK, put this in a FedEx envelope and send it back. There are companies that specialize in coming in and packing the art so it's handled very, very carefully and sent back.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well you see at the art museums downtown, Smithsonian, say on loan from and the families and, of course some of those things have been there for decades it seems.

CHENEY: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Decades.

CHENEY: Well and it's one of the wonderful aspects of American philanthropy that people do give to museums and share the collections that they've built with all of us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Content and Programming Copyright 2006 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2006 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.