Cheney says daughter Liz will win Senate bid

Washington (CNN) - They were supposedly "fishing buddies."

But Dick Cheney said Sunday he and Wyoming's incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Enzi never went fishing together, and he confidently predicted his daughter Liz would succeed in her bid to win Enzi’s seat.

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"She's going to win," Cheney told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week."

Cheney shrugged off Enzi's charges that the former vice president violated an unspoken code - when you've shared the same canoe, your daughter does not try to take the other fisherman's job - when Liz Cheney unveiled her Senate bid. Cheney said the fishing expedition "never happened."

The former vice president said his daughter is "going full speed" in her attempt to unseat the three-term senator, evidenced by her third-quarter fundraising haul of over $1 million. Enzi said he was "blindsided" when Liz Cheney announced her primary run. She made the announcement on the Web just 30 minutes after Enzi announced his re-election bid, taking swipes at the 69-year-old's age and calling for a "new generation of leaders to step up."

Her father took a different tack Sunday, accusing Enzi of catering to Washington's special interests in exchange for campaign cash.

"Mike has a record ... of getting about 84% of his campaign funds from Washington-based PACs," Cheney said. "That's more than any senator in either party."

"He doesn't get much money from Wyoming," Cheney added.

Despite his ultimate insider status - having served as secretary of defense under George H.W. Bush, White House chief of staff to Gerald Ford, and House minority whip, in addition to vice president under George W. Bush - Cheney painted his daughter as a Washington outsider and Enzi as a creature of D.C. who has overstayed his welcome.

"The fact of the matter is, Washington is not going to elect the next senator from Wyoming." Cheney said. "The people of Wyoming will elect that senator."