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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
I knew I wouldn’t really get an answer. Those are words without meaning. Slogans. What’s her VISION for the future of the party? She babbles about the rule of law, but it’s just a hook for her to pour out anti-Trump rhetoric.
If she’s for the rule of law, then why has she remained silent as the DOJ has been undermining our rule of law for years and years. The overreach of our intelligence agencies? The gross violations of law conducted by the FBI? She uses “rule of law” as a shorthand for “I hate Trump.”
She has no vision. Neither do you.
Well said.
If she believed in the rule of law, she’s have recognized that the Impeachment vote she happily joined violated the constitution.
I don’t know who she thinks she’s signalling to, but it’s not the Republican base. If anything, it’s donors. She wants cash. She’s a greedy pol.
And who does she think will vote for her?
A campaign is a means to an end — the end being DONOR CASH, not election. She would be running to win but to CASH IN.
This our Mollie on Twitter,
“That anyone is talking about Cheney is proof of her failure. Her job is to raise $$ (she doesn’t), stay on message (HA!), and not undermine caucus (it’s all she does). If you’re pretending this is only about joining with media/Pelosi for impeachment, you’re not serious.”
Also from the Federalist,
https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/16/liz-cheney-was-a-primary-culprit-of-spreading-fake-news-on-russian-bounties-to-undermine-trump/
Many folks say Liz Cheney is basically good, and basically conservative, I think spreading the Taliban bounty rumor proves otherwise. Spreading this accusation increases threats on the service men in theater, sows doubt in our allies, sows doubt in the public about our president’s concern for our troops, and erodes trust with the govt agencies. She has shown herself to lack honor.
Oh my goodness. Abuse of power is not a crime but it is sure impeachable.
Humm, only 60 lawsuits before 90 judges. Recounts were requested and paid for. Trump is the first incumbent president in history to claim that the election was stolen from him.
I used to respect Mollie Hemingway. She joined the Pod People long, long ago.
Will she though?
Talking about Trump, and the media attention the followed, did not help that guy in Texas 6 get any real percent of the vote. She may well “retire” in 2022 because the polling in her home state shows she had a tough hall for re-election. She has lost the support of most of her Republican colleagues, the House members will not be out in force to help her re-elect.
She voted for impeachment and explained why. Next all she had to do was stop talking about Trump and work toward future republican unity (that is the job of someone in leadership). She did not have to change her mind on anything or lie about anything. She did not have to apologize for her position or her votes. She just had to stop talking about Trump.
I hope she enjoys the current media spot light. It will go away soon. Elections for a second term are always about the incumbent. 2024 will be a reaction to 4 years of Biden. In 2024 being Anti-Trump will not get you elected to anything. Trump will not be the primary issue being put before the voters.
May you be as accurate as was your Klobuchar-Buttigieg prediction last time.
They don’t cover anything but slogans at those seminars.
There’s still hope for an asterisk next to Biden’s name on the list of presidents. “Election later found to have been fraudulent.”
I am old enough to remember Hillary Clinton saying the “Russians” helped Trump steal the election from her.
The only power Trump possesses is the power to inhabit otherwise vacant minds. Rent free.
She is publicly against Representative Jim Banks’s plan for this.
She is not going to figure out how to put a lid on Socialism and populism.
He came in 4th or 5th among 11 Republicans. The nature of jungle primaries is that two or three people catch fire and the election comes down to them. He didn’t catch fire. This time.
She didn’t keep talking about Trump, except when she was asked, she answered questions truthfully. Would you prefer that she lie. Basically, she was responding to Trump’s attacks.
It would be interesting to see a Trump-Cheney primary. She would wipe the floor with Trump in a debate. More likely, Trump won’t run, and there will be a bunch of Mini-Trumps against her. As we learned in 2016, a plurality will win all or most of a state’s delegates.
Cheney 2024.
They can do this per the Constitution. In fact if it’s a bad election they are obligated to. Politically speaking, I’m glad they didn’t.
That was my predication very, very early in the election process, after only a couple of debates. It was quite prescient under the circumstances; who saw Biden winning South Carolina not by a little, but by a stunning landslide. Wisely, Klobuchar and Buttigieg both got out of the race and endorsed Biden to stop Bernie.
It “could” snow in Phoenix in July, but the last time there was snow in Phoenix was in the dead of winter in the 1960’s and I was there.
It is amazing how many vacant minds I have otherwise inhabited in my beloved Republican Party.
You miss the point, again. Us smart people out here never thought Klobuchar or Buttigieg were going anywhere.
Interesting.
My point is that Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Warren were the 3rd, 4th and 5th people to the last to get out of the race. (Bernie was teh the 2nd to the last, leaving Biden as the only person standing.) Some 20 other people dropped out before Buttigieg and Klobuchar did.
“There you go again.”
I lived in Phoenix from 1993 to 2004 and from 2009 through most of 2020 and there was snow more than once.
Not that it lasted long. But it was there.
That still doesn’t address my point.
SMART people knew that Klobuchar and Buttigieg weren’t going anywhere, from the start.
It’s always projection with Democrats.
You’re just a few weeks old!
You obfuscate. He barely managed 3% of the vote.
And he came in below at least 4 Democrats.
This is an extremely generous view of the election results. Yes he came in 5th of 11 Republicans. That may sound decent to you, but of the votes cast for all Republican candidates he got only 5% of these votes. The top three Republicans got 31%, 22% and 17% of the votes for Republicans.
It is not that he just didn’t catch fire. He was not a factor at all in the election.