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It’s Time for Liz Cheney to Go
House Republicans kept Liz Cheney in her leadership role by a secret vote in February. If there’s a vote in May, she won’t be so lucky.
The Wyoming representative angered many in the base when she joined nine other Republicans to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. As House Republican Conference chair, she holds the third-highest position in minority leadership. Trump supporters found it a betrayal of their party.
Cheney avoided removal with a 145-61 vote in her favor. Anyone with a hint of political acumen or leadership instincts would start mending fences, uniting the caucus, and moving forward. Cheney chose the opposite.
She crowed about her victory at the time and worsened her position ever since. Every few weeks, Cheney popped up in the news, always to condemn Donald Trump and the majority of Republicans who supported him.
The last straw came Monday. Speaking at an off-the-record AEI conference in Sea Island, GA, Cheney said: “We can’t embrace the notion the election is stolen. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy. We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”
These comments were leaked, as Cheney expected. They were preceded earlier in the day with her tweet: “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
As after every Cheney comment in the past three months, Republicans and pundits are attacking each other, relitigating the 2016 and 2020 elections, and fretting about Trump’s future moves.
If House leadership’s job is to divide its own party, Cheney would be a perfect fit. But Republican Conference Chairs are supposed to unite the team and take the fight to Democrats. You know, the party that controls the House, the Senate, and the White House, and is jamming through a radical progressive agenda.
On substance, I agree with Cheney. The election was not stolen and Trump’s Jan. 6 incitement merited impeachment. But all that is history. The GOP’s job today is to stop Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. In that fight — the only fight that matters six months after the election — Cheney is AWOL.
Say I bought a sweet 1967 Ford Mustang. Candy apple red, 320 horses, lovingly restored. But six months ago, my wife borrowed it, ran a stop sign, and totaled the car. I would be upset. We would have a long, painful talk. I would sulk for a few weeks then buy a boring used Honda to replace it.
Then my wife asks me to drop off the kids at school, I reply, “Oh, should I bring them in my crappy Accord I had to buy because you destroyed my beautiful Mustang?!“
When she asks if I want anything from Starbucks, I say, “how about a hot Venti Ford-uccino? Do they have one of those?“
“Ugh, Jon. the stylist wrecked my hair.”
“Speaking of wrecks…”
“Jon, that was six months ago. Can we please move on?”
“We can’t embrace the notion that you didn’t wreck my car. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our marriage. We can’t whitewash what happened to my Mustang! What you did to my car was a line that cannot be crossed!”
Everything sulky Jon said above was accurate. Nothing was helpful, intelligent, or useful to our relationship.
The wife would be right to file for divorce. And it’s time to file papers on Rep. Cheney.
This mess isn’t just about Liz Cheney, the House GOP, or Beltway pundits. Cheney was hired to represent the people of Wyoming and she refuses to do it.
In a just-released poll, Wyoming Republican primary voters oppose her 29% to 65%. Fifty-two percent would vote against her regardless of the challenger. This is hardly surprising since the state chose Trump over Biden 70.4% to 26.7%. Trump’s margin was higher than Cheney’s in 2020.
It’s not as if she is bitterly holding on in a blue state. Wyoming’s lower house is 51-9 GOP and the senate is 28-2 GOP. You could paint an R on a stray cat and voters would send it to the US Capitol over a Democrat.
Most GOP representatives would do a better job as Chair today and Cheney will likely be removed from the House by her own constituents 18 months from now. The job should go to a Republican who wants to achieve party goals in the current Congress and prepare to take the majority in 2022.
For those who want to relitigate the past, there are plenty of pundits eager to take up the slack.
Published in Politics
There are plenty of places in the US to get an education, they’re not all woke hellholes. Maybe not even most, in terms of geography.
And the exploding heads of many supposedly on the right.
Indeed.
Who summoned the Gorgon?
Not a mob but arguably worse, in November, 1983 a bomb was detonated in the 2nd floor of the Senate wing of the US Capitol.
Also this in 1971:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bomb-explodes-in-capitol-building
And this in 1954:
https://history.house.gov/Oral-History/Events/1954-Shooting/
Gary, don’t take this as a rebuttal to your post. I’m 99% in agreement with you. Jon’s argument is impressive only for being so weak. I am only filling in the historical record.
Thanks. I knew about the terrorists who shot up the House of Representatives, and bombs going off from time to time. That’s why I used the word “mob” as those attacks had far fewer people. Thanks for the correction.
Prior to the counting of the electoral college votes in 1861, General Scott ringed the capitol with armed soldiers. While a crowd gathered, they didn’t dare charge. General Scott also said that he had a cannon that he would fire if he needed to. Yikes!
If he had revitalized the party, they wouldn’t have lost BOTH houses of Congress. The GOP held the whole shebang when he won in 2016. His leadership cost them both branches of Congress and the presidency – some revitalization.
I think that the last incumbent president who lost both houses of congress and the presidency when seeking re-election was the hapless Herbert Hoover, which was 88 years ago. The Democrats held the presidency for the next 20 years. So much winning with Trump!
But Gary, Hoover was a Progressive Republican, like Willard Romney. Like Jeffy Flake. Like Liz Cheney! And he lost! That makes him your favorite kind of Republican.
Liz Cheney is a Progressive Republican? She takes after her father (and mother) in politics.
Jeff Flake is a Progressive Republican? A fifth generation Arizonan, Jeff Flake was the director of The Goldwater Institute before he was elected to Congress. Jeff Flake takes after Barry Goldwater.
There’s nothing that will convince people that the election was stolen more than to loudly proclaim that it wasn’t stolen and then demand that everyone agree with that while blocking any efforts to actually find out whether it was stolen or not.
I agree that there probably wasn’t enough cheating to make a difference in the outcome, but I don’t see how anyone can say that with certainty.
Sorry, Drew. Your comments should be in italics.
You can wave Jeffy’s resume or Liz’s birth certificate all you want. That changes nothing.
If you think Liz Cheney is a progressive Republican, you’re just not dealing in the reality of political positions. Cheney is by *nearly* all accounts more conservative than Stefanik but policy beliefs are not what counts these days.
I think all who are tone deaf to the desires of the people should go. They represent us. We got Trump because they wouldn’t listen. We lost Trump because they wouldn’t listen. Last time the politicians were this bad at listening, a civil war broke out. If anyone thinks the left will live a polite candidate, they should go. Heck, even Republicans hated Cruz.
I say let’s throw all the warmongering globalists out of the Republican Party.
“As for hawkishness, Stefanik disagreed with Trump’s proposed withdrawal from Syria. And when Trump wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan, Stefanik proudly co-sponsored the Ensuring a Secure Afghanistan Act, declaring that, “The consequences of President Obama’s premature withdrawal from Iraq were far too significant for us to risk making the same mistake in Afghanistan.” The lead sponsor of that bill was none other than Liz Cheney.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/liz-cheney-is-not-the-problem/
Hey, I don’t have any particular fondness for Stefanik either, so your attempt at a gotcha falls flat with me.
I disagree.
I think Jon’s argument is spot on. This is not about the relative merits of Cheney’s argument, we have fought that to death. Nor about whether the people of Wyoming should support her in 18 months, I don’t live there that is up to them.
It is about what “leadership” in the Party is meant to be. There are 212 members of the Republican Minority. That is 212 different but often similar sets of beliefs, priorities and campaign promises. The job of leadership is to get all these people pointed in the same direction. Get them working for a common cause.
That is not possible if a member of leadership constantly takes up an issue that divides the party and picks at the wound. There are 3 groups with in the Republican Party. A plurality of Republicans still support Trump, a significant minority now do not support Trump.
I think the true future of the Party exists in a 3rd group. “lets stop talking about Trump”. These people may or may not have voted for Trump but they are ready to move on. Someone above mentioned that Cheney had a very conservative voting record and that it was too bad these things could not be based on policy, where Cheney is sound. That is fine, I would love to discuss policy. Moving to talking about policy can only happen if people like Cheney stop giving air to arguments about an election 6 months ago and start talking about policy ideas and how to move forward as a caucus.
Members of the House serve 2 year terms. Cheney is close to 1/4 of the way through her term. What has she done for the people of Wyoming in that time? What has she done to further Republican policy preferences in that time? What has she done, at all, to deserve a leadership position? This is an elected position in the Party, Leaders can not actually lead if the Members don’t have faith in them or if they are attacking the members they are meant to be leading.
Yep.
Some think she actually wants to lose her position, and she’s setting herself up for her post-Congress career.
What did the feckless Republican Party do when they had control? The national party told us that they couldn’t stop Obama unless they had Congress, so voters gave them the House. Then the excuse was stuff gets stopped in the Senate so we need that too. Okay, here’s the Senate and now you control both chambers. Well my good man, Obama won’t sign anything so we need the Presidency. Fine, here’s a Republican President. You now control Congress and the White House advance conservatism.
I’m sorry, the President you sent is a bit uncouth, we can’t work with him. In fact, we really don’t want to govern. It’s too hard and it’s easier to fund raise when we’re in the minority. Remember how the Dems had Obamacare sitting in a desk drawer and dusted if off to shove through as soon as he took office? We weren’t prepared. We had no conveyor belt of bills ready for a malleable president to sign.
It was disgusting watching the uniparty work against the outsider. Trump was an unknown in 2016. Would he govern as a Democrat? I didn’t make my decision between him and Johnson (living in New Mexico I thought it might be possible he could win the state) until I entered the voting booth. It came down to playing Russian Roulette with one in the cylinder versus six in the cylinder. When he won, I was glad that Hillary was prevented from winning and hoped to see Milton Friedman’s quote about setting conditions come into play. Alas decorum was more important than making America great for some.
Put this comment on repeat for eternity. There’s the Nevers’ favorite kind of Republican Party: feckless, useless, and impotent.
According to https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2020/house/ideology
Stefanik is #54 and Cheney is #115. That’s not exactly accurate because Cheney’s score is tied with like 5 others as is Stefanik, but they appear to arbitrarily rank them with the ties.
I disagree with you about policy beliefs. I recognize that Cheney is relatively conservative, but the issue is she is outspoken about her vote to impeach. The impeachment vote is a crossing the rubicon moment- there’s no going back. It was a bad vote, and she should suffer for it. This isn’t about loyalty to Trump- I’d feel the same way about a vote to impeach Bush and I don’t even like him anymore. There was no insurrection or call to violence by trump- that narrative has been debunked (leftist media would say otherwise).
Cheney is going to be removed from her leadership position because she isn’t mending fences and is spending a lot her time attacking Trump instead of Democrats. If it was about her vote it would have happened months ago (it should have because her vote showed she’s not in line on a major issue with the rest of Republicans). She’s going to lose it now because she’s bad at her job and isn’t a unifying figure in the party.
She’s about in the middle of the pack as far as ideology in the house Republicans- if she survives her re-election vote fine but if she gets primaried we probably get someone more conservative to replace her. She’s probably going to lose- her constituents have lost faith in her.
When the vote to remove Cheney was about her vote on impeachment if failed by large margins. The House Republican’s were willing to move on from fights about Trump. Yes she was out of step with the vast majority of the members but they were moving on and look to the future.
Cheney had her say and her vote, she made her point. None of this would be an issue if she would just move on. Instead she is kicking the dead horse and loosing her former supporters. Nothing that she has done recently has changed anyone’s mind nor has it helped the party.
The spectacle of Republicans insisting the election wasn’t stolen amazes me. It may be true there isn’t any hard proof of a steal, but the system that Democrats have installed in many states makes it very easy for voter fraud to occur, and it’s done intentionally for that reason. Because of this, it’s impossible to say with any confidence at all that the election wasn’t stolen, but they keep saying it as if they can demonstrate that fact. They’re not just saying that there isn’t any proof, they’re saying affirmatively that it wasn’t stolen. There is no justification for saying this given the lack of security in many states’ electoral systems. The purpose of having secure elections is to give people enough confidence so that they cannot justifiably make the accusations and insinuations that elections were stolen, and the insistence that fraud didn’t happen merely because no one can prove it undermines support for that goal.
In some states, common law will presume adultery in some situations if two married people, unmarried to each other, spend time alone in a hotel or house. Republicans and others who say the election wasn’t stolen are like lawyers for such adulterers, stating that the deed never happened because no one actually saw it happen, even though there was more than enough opportunity to justify the presumption that it did. The motive of such a lawyer is just to represent the client. The motive of Republicans who make this kind of point is unclear, but I suspect they do it to make it psychologically easier to live with Biden as president than it otherwise would be.
Excellent!
Cheney 2024! In a world of Trumpers, the woman with a vision and honesty will stand out.
What, exactly, is her vision for the party, aside from “I hate Trump”?
For that matter, what’s yours?
She is a strong Reagan-Cheney Republican.
I am a Reagan Republican. Otherwise stated, I am a Reagan-Romney-McCain-W.-Dole-H.W.-Ford-Goldwater-Ike-Coolidge Republican. I am just not a Trump Republican.
Everyone has something that is supreme for them. For some it is being Pro-Life. For some it is being Pro-Second Amendment. For some it is be fiscally conservative. For some it is a strong national defense. For me it is the Rule of Law. Here is what Liz Cheney said in the Washington Post:
I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law. Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud.
Cheney 2024.
She lost her objectivity when she voted to impeach Trump. If she believed in the rule of law, she would recognize that what he did and said on Jan. 6 was not a crime. She’s like the George Floyd jurors in a way. The verdict has to validate the narrative, not the facts.
I agree. We don’t know if the election was stolen or not. No recount was performed. Only a few investigations of any kind.