Liz Cheney joined Fox News as a paid contributor in January and guess what? Less than four months later, she'a already acting like she's running for the U.S. Senate. If I were a more cynical person, I'd say she's deliberately using her Fox platform as a launch pad - and that Fox News is letting her do so.

As David at Crooks and Liars noted, Cheney was asked on Fox News Sunday yesterday about rumors she's planning a run, and Cheney did not deny them.

"I love Wyoming," she explained. "Wyoming is my home. And what I have been hearing from people all across Wyoming is how important it is that we defeat Barack Obama in 2012. And they're very afraid about -- you ask people in Wyoming, 'Are you better off now than you were $5 trillion ago?' They'll say, absolutely not."

"There was a report yesterday that you're traveling around the state, and that you're thinking of running for Senate from Wyoming in 2014," Wallace pressed.

"Look, I have been honored to have been asked to help support the Republican Party in Wyoming," Cheney replied. "As I said, it's my home. It's a very special place, but I'm really focused on defeating Barack Obama. We don't have the luxury, frankly, of looking beyond this election because this election is so important."

But as David pointed out, Politico reported: 

Cheney’s schedule and some of her rhetoric suggests someone who is eyeing an eventual campaign.

...Wyoming politicos say local friends of Cheney are encouraging her to look at a run and helping her garner local press coverage by notifying Wyoming media outlets about her attendance at events. Few think she would be making stops in every corner of the state if she weren’t at least mulling a future run.

“She’s running up a lot of asphalt,” said Shawn Whitman, a Laramie native and former chief of staff for two Wyoming senators, of Cheney’s schedule. “This is planting seeds of thought in people’s minds. There’s nobody I know that goes to those events unless they have a position in the party or they’re trying to run for office.”

 And what better way to bolster her Republican-candidate's resume than to get a regular gig on Fox News? Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall when any discussions about it occur between Cheney and Fox head Roger Ailes?

Video via Crooks and Liars.