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Bulwark: Jon Gabriel Is the ‘Worst of the Worst’
In a big change for The Bulwark, Editor-at-Large Charlie Sykes is complaining about conservatives. This time, he’s upset at conservatives criticizing Rep. Liz Cheney for criticizing conservatives because Cheney is more conservative than the conservatives she’s criticizing. It’s all a bit recursive and my brain’s a bit logy from the second Pfizer dose. But if I read correctly, Never Trump wants Cheney to remain in leadership because her voting record is more pro-Trump than Elise Stefanik’s. I think.
After slamming Dan McLaughlin, Eliana Johnson, Byron York, Henry Olsen, Mark Hemingway, and Kurt Schlichter, he finally made the big announcement:
But, this, from Jon Gabriel, may be the worst of the worst. (And it is not a parody.)
“On substance,” he writes, “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.”
He then critiques my admittedly brilliant analogy of why it’s better for the party to focus on future goals instead of past grievances.
Of course, we know the real reason Mr. Sykes is upset. It’s not my fault that I’m smarter, funnier, a better writer, more handsome — nay, sexier — than him, not to mention humbler. But I assure him that such a cross is uneasy to bear.
My first job out of high school was splitting the atom. When I entered the Navy, the Cold War was raging; when I left, we had won it. I then graduated summa cum laude, and not just at any university, but Playboy‘s “#1 Party School” Arizona State (i.e., the Stanford of the West).
My life continues to proceed from victory to victory. I host the best podcast ever. I edit the finest website in existence. Even a tossed-off article on a Wyoming congresswoman goes viral. Men fear me and women want to be with me.
But of all my successes, perhaps my favorite is being named “Worst of the Worst” by Charlie Sykes and The Bulwark Dot Com. Risking immodesty, I have added the title to my Twitter bio. Since he follows me, I hope it brightens his day.
Published in General
By their fruits ye shall know them.
Spent years faking being a conservative on radio in Wisconsin because he was jealous of Limbaugh’s success. In the end, he could no longer fake it. Plus, his womanizing caught up with him.
You got me there.
Remember: the elites hate you because you vote wrong. Here’s more slander from an increasingly ridiculous person.
We hope.
I loved your January column. Can you provide me with a hyperlink to it?
Gary
I’ve wanted to mention this in the past. Given that Trump cheated on Wife #1 with Wife #2, and then cheated on Wife #2 with Wife #3, and then cheated on Wife #3 with Stormy Daniels and the Playboy Playmate of the year, isn’t it a bit off for you to complain about adultery, unless you are also willing to call out Trump?
Another example of why the “certified” election results aren’t worth the paper they were “certified” on and then used to… well, okay to be gentle… wipe my nose with.
I reading the various comments about Liz Cheney, I am struck at how nobody has cited The Wall Street Journal, National Review and Peggy Noonan.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Liz Cheney Confronts a House of Cowards
House Republicans are about to demonstrate they can’t handle the truth about 2020 and Jan. 6.
It all comes back to the Capitol insurrection. It’s at the heart of the battle that is, four months later, tearing the House GOP apart. Increasingly, Republicans paint 1/6 as a rowdy and raucous event, an arguably understandable but certainly embarrassing one in which hundreds of people illegally marched into the Capitol and, for a few hours, occupied its halls. There was some unfortunate violence; it should be prosecuted. But you don’t endlessly, ruthlessly and for political reasons bring governmental force down on members of a crowd that got carried away. America is a nation in which crowds get carried away. They didn’t tear the place apart, as street rioters did last summer. It was goofballs dressed in antelope horns. So get a grip, maintain perspective.
There is some truth in this. But it dodges the larger, defining and essential truth.
That has to do with the expressed aim and intention of many rioters. It wasn’t to roam the halls and yell. It was something grave and dark: to disrupt and prevent the constitutionally mandated counting of the Electoral College votes in the 2020 presidential election. That was scheduled to occur in Congress that day. That act of tabulating is more than two centuries old, formalizes and validates the election outcome, physically represents the peaceful transfer of power, and has never been stopped or disrupted. What happened on 1/6 was an attempted assault on the constitutional order.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/liz-cheney-confronts-a-house-of-cowards-11620342680
From National Review:
Liz Cheney Is Not the Problem
To be sure, McCarthy himself, on January 13, said that Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” But weeks later, he went to Mar-a-Lago to make peace with Trump.
Cheney has not, and won’t. Both in response to questions and when not directly prompted, she has taken every opportunity to assail Trump and the stolen-election narrative. She drew headlines in February with a speech hosted by the Reagan Institute framing the Capitol riot thus: “You certainly saw anti-Semitism. You saw the symbols of Holocaust denial . . . you saw a Confederate flag being carried through the rotunda.” She gave an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox saying she would not vote for Donald Trump in 2024. She defended, on Twitter, greeting Joe Biden civilly at his joint address to Congress.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/liz-cheney-is-not-the-problem/
From Peggy Noonan:
Purging Liz Cheney
GOP leaders shouldn’t have to lie about 2020 to keep their job.
This should be a hopeful moment for House Republicans. While they’re playing defense in the minority for now, their prospects for picking up the five net seats they need to regain the majority in 2022 are excellent. That is, unless they devolve into internal brawling over the 2020 election.
Yet that’s precisely what they seem to be doing as some Members try to oust Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from the GOP House leadership. Ms. Cheney easily survived an earlier effort to dump her, 145-61, after she was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump after the events of Jan. 6.
But she continues to rankle some in the GOP House conference by refusing to go along with Mr. Trump’s demand that Republicans agree that the 2020 election was stolen. On Monday Mr. Trump issued a statement that “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!”
Ms. Cheney responded on Twitter : “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.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/purging-liz-cheney-11620168273
You are back!
Hey, how about defending Jon?
He remained conservative.
I have met Jon. He is a great guy, and I am sure that I have given him heartburn. While I went to Saguaro High School, our attendance lines touched the attendance lines of Jon’s Shadow Mountain High School on 40th Street in Phoenix. (Chaparral High School was built after I graduated in 1970.)
I prefer the Jon Gabriel’s January post to his current position.
There is a phrase called “nut picking” where you pick out the strongest statements by people on one side of an argument, and then try to label everyone else with them. Both sides do this.
Oh, but you’re okay with Sykes’ womanizing, yet you complain about Trump’s. You want to accuse me of hypocrisy, you get to wear the label, too.
You shouldn’t be surprised that no one is paying attention to anti-Trump RINO (if that) Peggy Noonan, and it’s incumbent on the Editors at NRO to buttress some of their more ridiculous takes on impeachment. They’re in your ballpark.
The WSJ editorial carries considerably more weight for me, but nobody’s right all of the time.
That may well be a true statement if it wasn’t so simplistic. Cheney has shown consistently poor judgement in the remarks she has made, and how and when she has made them–and some of her comments are not “honest” but dishonest. As long as she wins in Wyoming, she is not “purged,” but a leader pays a price when they value themselves over those whom they are leading.
So you are only with people who agree with you.
Sad.
I always wonder if someone who is such a moralist and so judgmental about other people and their marriages, if they were ever even offered the opportunity to cheat on their wives, much less be a tall, handsome multimillionaire with hair who has women throwing themselves upon him. We’ll never know, will we ?
Finally a liberal Democrat who speaks up for Republicans!
I’m a proud progressive who thinks Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and George W. Bush are true patriots
Opinion by Sheila Jackson Lee
“I am a proud progressive Texas Democrat in the tradition of the late Gov. Ann Richards and my predecessors, Reps. Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland. And yet Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking Republican in the House, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, and President George W. Bush, the last Republican president to amass a popular vote majority, have my undying respect for the manner in which they have stood steadfast in defense of the US Constitution and their principles — even in the face of brutal and unwarranted attacks by their own party.
“All three of them have repeatedly rejected and denounced publicly, unequivocally and fiercely the Republican-driven “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Together, Cheney, Romney and Bush are modern-day profiles in courage — embodying former President John F. Kennedy’s dictum that “sometimes party loyalty demands too much.”
“Now some might think it surprising for a member of an opposing party to go against the convention of noninterference when one’s adversary is in the process of inflicting harm upon itself. But I have chosen to ignore this convention because I am a firm believer in the promise of a more perfect union. And I believe in America and its future.”
____________________________________________________
I was surprised when she cited other conservatives who took unpopular stands:
“Men like Rep L. Brooks Hays of Arkansas, who alienated powerful Gov. Orval Faubus during the 1957 integration crisis when he refused to support Faubus’ effort to keep the Little Rock public schools racially segregated. Or Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, House Minority Leader John Jacobs Rhodes of Arizona and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, who went to the White House to tell then-President Richard Nixon in 1974 that he had few supporters left in Congress — and if he didn’t resign, he would be impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate.
“Or women like Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, the first Republican senator to denounce the demagogue Sen. Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin during the height of the Red Scare. In her famous ‘Declaration of Conscience’ speech to the Senate, she said: ‘It is high time we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom.'”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!
I died laughing.
I’m dead now.
Thanks, Gary.
The only thing funnier would be if it was co-written by Maxine Waters.
Wisconsin, eh? I’m surprised he ain’t a PITster.
Thanks for making the case that Liz Cheney needs to go. She wants to talk incessantly about Trump. Trump wants to talk incessantly about Trump. And the Democrats love to talk incessantly about Trump and Cheney is handing them the perfect opportunity to do so. I’m sure Jackson Lee was laughing when she wrote this.
Not sure whether you’re referring to Trump or Sykes here, but, uh, no.
What in the world?
Gary, what is your intent when you post stuff like this? I am asking sincerely.
This makes me want to throw up. Margaret Chase Smith was an idiot. Soviet spies were rampant in the US State Department. A Soviet stooge had been FDR’s 2nd Vice-President. Even Truman was so wish-washy he invited Stalin to come to America and offer a rebuttal of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech. Everyone knew it but poor Margaret. She didn’t care if McCarthy was right or wrong, he was a boor. She didn’t like the tactics. (Sound familiar?)
Amazingly, in 24 years in the House and Senate, her attack on a fellow Republican is the only thing she’s remembered for. (She also opposed Goldwater in 1964.) Her legislative legacy? Bupkis. Which is why, of course, Bush père awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom – for being useless, wrong but exceedingly polite to the Democrats and their fellow travelers.
Gary, can’t you see that Sheila Jackson Lee is just using the minor Republican infighting to try to convince people that she is a morally superior bi-partisan great and wise person? Politicians do this all the time, even some Republicans. When they find someone in the opposing party criticizing one of their own, the insincere politician suddenly heaps praise upon praise on the “courageous” opposition party member for siding with the insincere politician’s agenda.
Do you think Sheila Jackson has ever praised Romney or Bush for being patriots at any time in the past? Not a snowball’s chance in Hades! In 2008 Lee co-sponsored Dennis Kookcinich’s bill to impeach President Bush, citing “”high crimes and misdemeanors,” and “abuses of power” related to his prosecution of the war in Iraq and the fight against global terrorism, among other topics.
And now that Lee abruptly starts singing the praises of Bush, you believe her, presumably because she lines up with your opinion on this one issue. But the whole thing is textbook political theater. Now pass the popcorn, please.
I look forward to the 2023 pieces about how DeSantis is actually worse than Trump, because he’s better at packaging the poison. “Say what you will about The Donald, at least he was unfiltered and truthful about his insanity. DeSantis hides the hate in a slick package, and that spells a danger for our Democracy 10 times greater than what Trump’s blustering impotence could ever achieve.”
Sheila Jackson Lee co-sponsored a bill to impeach George Bush. But no one remembers that, because no one remembers anything except today’s ahistorical pyrotechnic display of virtue.
It appears that Republican politicians do not have the guts to call out Trump, even after The Trump Big Lie, and the Capitol Riot of 1/6. I was able to cite the WSJ, NR and Peggy Noonan in Comment #39, but no Republican politicians.
I would much prefer to cite Republican politicians, but if only Democratic politicians will stand up for Liz Cheney, I will cite Democratic politicians.
It is indeed shocking to me how many folks want to memory-hole Trump’s Big Lie, and then the Capitol Riot of 1/6. I haven’t forgotten and I won’t forget.
I filed a post about the Southern Manifesto in the Member Feed. https://ricochet.com/952898/the-southern-manifesto/ I said in part,
Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954. In February and March of 1956, a document commonly called the “Southern Manifesto” was signed by 19 Senators and 82 Representatives in opposition to “forced racial integration,” calling Brown “a clear abuse of judicial power,” and pledging to use “all lawful means” to have it be reversed. The signers included all of delegations of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia, most of the members of Florida and North Carolina, and several members of Tennessee and Texas.
This was a shameful period in our country’s history. These members of Congress bore a stain as people who had signed the Southern Manifesto, just as [the 22] members of the Senate bore a stain who did not vote to censure Joe McCarthy. The signers of The Southern Manifesto have that noted in their obituaries.
On January 6, 2021, Cocaine Mitch said that the most important vote that he had ever made in 36 years was to affirm the Electoral College votes. Sadly, 8 senators and 139 Representatives voted to disqualify the vote in Arizona including my vote. Those 147 Republicans will go down in history as did the 19 Senators and 82 Representatives who signed the Southern Manifesto.
I cannot understand why in the world the Republican Party will not leave Trump behind. I cannot understand why in the world people condemn Liz Cheney for her vote of conscience, and her statements about Trump, and cannot see that Trump is whipping up the crowd against her. Liz is playing defense and responding to questions and attacks; Trump is playing offense. And we are about to punish Liz Cheney. Shame on us.
I am not willing to accede to a Trumpified Republican Party. And I will not rest until each of those 147 traitors to the Constitution are no longer in Congress. I will never vote for any of them for any office, and will support their opponents. This project will likely take decades to complete. But members of Congress die, recant, retire, or get defeated in primaries or general elections. One member at a time, all 147 will no longer be in congress. (I would be open to a full recantation, not unlike after the Civil War, former members of Congress were admitted once they again swore an oath to the Constitution.) Some Democrats in Congress literally refuse to speak to any of the 147. That frankly feels right. They can recant or they can leave.
That sounds just about right to me! Alas, the ever changing values and rhetoric of the left. It’s a real bear to keep up with.
Their values don’t change. Their rhetoric does.