Short Update on Liz Cheney v. Trump
By Colleen O’Connor
What a real time Master Class in politics. Liz Cheney is “a hero,” as Reuters headlines. She may be “down, but not out.”
What a wonder.
Cheney now has a national audience and she got it on the cheap! Think of how many campaigns, how many fundraisers, and how many elections battles that countless other politicians have endured, and never even earned a national headline, let alone dominated them for months.
Then, there is Liz Cheney. She took on the biggest villain in the room; literally and figuratively.
She has only been in the House of Representatives for two terms, representing Wyoming’s at-large district.
Yet, today in a “voice vote,” the Republican House caucus hid from her (refusing to conduct a secret ballot as they did in their first try). The President blasted her; while every major network, newspaper, social media outlet in the nation put her name (not his) above the fold and in the lead story.
And the locals are calling her “a hero,” “a martyr,” and repeating all the Trump insults.
The worth of that is incalculable. It is a daytime soap with endless episodes.
Meanwhile, the future of the ex-President is looking bleak. The latest polls show his unfavorable ratings 15% higher than his favorable. Independent focus groups now lean heavily against the GOP. And there is a serious movement afoot to create an anti-Trump third party.
So fearful are Cheney’s colleagues in the GOP House caucus, that they refused to even show Trump the poll.
His demand. Remove Cheney from a largely ceremonial #3 House slot because she dared to support the U.S. Constitution and not the insurrectionists. Courage writ large.
Also, a terrifying defeat looms for Trump. As I wrote about the 2020 Presidential race, “It is not Biden v. Trump, but COVID-19 v. Trump.” And COVID-19 won.
In 2022, it will not be Biden v. Trump, but Cheney v. Trump. Imagine losing once to a virus and a second time to a woman.
As I wrote earlier this month:
If [Liz Cheney] loses the caucus vote, she wins the “Big One,” where Biden and the Democrats bury the GOP in 2022 with Trump, Giuliani and Gaetz-like scandals; and sends them to the dust-bin of history.
Prediction#1: Liz Cheney is going to be the first Republican female minority leader after Kevin McCarthy is ditched. She sees the future and it isn’t Trumpism.
I stand by that.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Sad how doing the right thing can have worse consequences than the punishment for wrongdoing. I guess that’s life in politics.
Even sadder is that now this arch-conservative who says she is against same sex marriage, even though her sister is gay, is now being called a hero. How low can we can we go folks?
Geoff, that’s probably not a question you really want answered if you want to continue sleeping at night. It’s like asking are the fires going to be bad this summer with only 15% of snowpack left in the Sierras for this time of year…
Is it me or is the bar for ‘hero’ so low that even an earthworm would clear it without hardly having to leap? Seems that way to me. Looking up her record on what she’s voted on, stood for, said and done, and how similar the policies are to her candidate-for-a-war-crimes-tribunal shotgun-shooting liar oil-soaked profiteering father makes one rather uncomfortable in most ways…
Here is a joke I heard a while back to brighten your day! Hear about Liz Cheney’s latest fundraising raffle? First prize is an all expenses paid camping trip to a private reserve in Texas to hunt turkeys with her father. Even the alcohol will be free…but you’ll have to sign a waiver and secrecy agreement. Optional was to bring your own bulletproof vest.
sealintheSelkirks
I would definitely agree that the bar for “hero” has been set so low in recent years that it has no meaning. Anyone who ever put on a military uniform is referred to as a hero. I think the word has lost all meaning, seal.
I like the joke but it sounds eerily real. I bet there’s plenty of people out there who actually would love to kill some birds with her old man, especially with free booze.
I’m not fan of hers and I don’t think she’s a hero but at least she stood up for the rule of law despite herself otherwise being a Trump supporter. The big irony is she’s probably far more conservative and right wing than the people who voted her out.
Who would believe I would back a Cheney. Amazing, she is an honorable woman who stands behind her convictions Hopefully she and Mitt can be the GOP of the future. At least they are honorable and stand by their convictions, more than can be said for most of them.
Hopefully this will cause the grand demise of the grand old party and it can transform in to something that can be helpful for the future of the country. A sad demise to the GOP.
Not that I would ever vote for one
I’ll give you ‘stands behind her conviction’, but…
Definition of honorable
1 : deserving of respect or high regard : deserving of honor
This woman is evil and corporate owned.
And Eisenhower is probably the last honorable repugnantcan.
…and to believe this came from the spawn of Darth Vader himself. Strange times indeed…
For Coleen’s Prediction #1 to come true, a majority of the House Republicans would have to grow a spine and be willing to cast a public vote rejecting Donald Trump’s version of the world. How about a follow on column explaining what would have to happen for that to happen? What events or elections would convince them to stand up to their living god?
TODAY!
“I never thought that I’d be saying, ‘Yeah, go Liz Cheney.’ But I am.”
— Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, in an interview with CNN.
The Daily News editorial
“And Liz will have the last laugh.”
It’s important for progressives to understand the difference between the trump cult take-over of the GOP and those Republicans who do stand for the rule of law, who recognize and respect the democratic process – and who voted to impeach the orange baboon. It’s important to acknowledge the split between the neo-fascists and even arch-conservatives, which represent a deep division within the ruling elites. A broad, united front is still needed as long as the domestic threat from White Supremacists and armed trump minions is real – and as the Senate was told yesterday, it is real.
Some hero. Cheney voted for Trumps’ policies more than Matt Gaetz did. Gaetz 85% of the time. Cheney 93% of the time. Please stop glorifying this evil person.
Sorry folks but this is what the Constitution should be about. The job of a politician is to speak for the majority of PEOPLE they are representing…whether YOU agree so or not. Not everyone will agree with everyone but she represents a state that voted over 80% for Trump. Whether you like it or not she should have represented the PEOPLE…who in this case a majority are Trump supporters.
Imagine if Nancy Pelosi all of a sudden turned to a Trump supporter and went against what the majority of Californians voted for and believed…you better believe California would have done the same thing to her…and we should because she is not representing California as a whole. Liz didn’t do her job and she deserved what she got.
Furthermore, stop the hate and name calling.
“For the people” – the fallacy in your argument is that you say politicians should automatically follow the people of their district – which implies they don’t have a backbone of their own, do not stand for any particular principles, and would have endorsed slavery if their constituents wanted it. And you claim that’s what the Constitution states. You completely overlook the clearly un-Constitutional beliefs of those who ousted Cheney.
Love how you say “Sorry folks”. This has nothing whatsoever to do with representing her constituents. And it is NOT always the job of a politician to speak for the majority of the people they represent. It is her job to support the rule of law which in this case is the false accusation of election fraud.
And now this from KevinMcCarthy (losing his way faster and faster) opposes bi-partisan commission to study the Capital insurrection…because it won’t investigate Black Live Matter!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kevin-mccarthy-capitol-riot-commission_n_60a3ba55e4b0909248089cbd
Another Update…McCarthy v. Cheney fight. McCarthy stumbles…1/6 commission vote, he loses 35 in caucus….up from 10 for impeachment.
(https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-republican-votes-u-capitol-183112015.html)
AND…here is a GOP challenger to Cheney in 2022 Wyoming election:
“Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard (R), who’s challenging Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for her House seat, acknowledged in an interview with Casper Star-Tribune that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18.”
One down. Next up?
A very interesting look at what people outside the US sees in Liz Cheney and her illustrious war criminal father by Binoy Kampmark, who was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Paragraph 7 reminds us of what she and daddy wrote together…
Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney and the Rule of Law
by Binoy Kampmark
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/26/liz-cheney-dick-cheney-and-the-rule-of-law/
sealintheSelkirks
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