Shortly after college, I befriended a man who touted his honesty and a women who proclaimed her virtue. Looking back, I regret investing with the former and not cultivating the latter.
An anonymous golf partner
I heard a Republican friend tout Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) integrity and patriotism. I thought of the quote up top. It’s a composite of Cheney (wrong to trust or respect) and why her political life can now be clocked on an egg timer. It’s time for Republican reality checks. I stopped caring about Trump after he lost 64 election-fraud cases, and stopped supporting Cheney when her ego got the better of her. With lots of great GOP statesmen, the Cheney-Trump feud is a political distraction.
Republicans cannot trust Cheney because of her own Big Lie. The minute she lost Wyoming’s GOP primary (August), the RINO farewell tour began. She now claims Republicans have “our nation barreling toward crisis, lawlessness, and violence.” That’s a LIE, because Democrats spent the US into runaway inflation, eliminated cash bail, and decarcerated criminals. It’s a BIG Lie because she knows Trump left low inflation and a secure border, and fought the Defund The Police movement.
It’s a Big Lie because she voted for 93% of President Trump’s policies, said Peter Strzok’s “insurance policy” sounded like a “coup” and “treason” against a duly-elected president (May 2019), and told the press she was “Trumpier” than Sen. Rand Paul (September 2019). Was that the real Liz Cheney – or is it the politician who ordered President Trump to respect “the sanctity of our electoral process” (November 2020)?
Cheney is just another wannabe of limited ability and the right family name, who’s now on the outside looking in from no man’s land (used by Democrats and of no use to the GOP). Don’t feel sorry for her, because she forgot she was elected to be of the people and for the people of Wyoming, which is where her Big Lie began.
When Cheney decided to run in Wyoming, she had to buy a home in the state (2012). Turns out the “Cheney” name was not enough to unseat the popular GOP senator Mike Enzi (2013). Her campaign attracted so little voter support, she was forced to withdraw from the race (2014). That failure was a peek into things to come; a USA Today poll found, “Wyoming voters say Cheney isn’t one of them.” Other “red flag” news reports depicted a political mismatch.
In 2013, her “hawkish” foreign policy turned off Wyoming Republicans, and it later got her sideways with President Trump (2020) and Tulsi Gabbard (2022). Voters also disliked her criticism of her sister’s same-sex marriage. Note that MAGA Wyoming rejected a homophobe in 2014 and woke Democrats elected one to champion democracy in 2021. Finally, when Cheney withdrew from the race, she blamed “family health issues” that never presented.
Because Cheney has zero political acumen, she is now a lame duck campaigning against Republicans. Before declaring war on Trump, she neglected her own political reality (she was 4-0 with his support and 0-3 without it) and ignored the will of Wyoming’s electorate. Her first win (2016) should have opened her eyes:
- 25,000 Trump voters cast ballots for Cheney’s Democrat opponent
- Trump defeated Clinton by a 46-point margin
- Cheney won by (only) 32.1 points
In 2018, Cheney was re-elected as a MAGA Republican in Wyoming, where there was no anti-Trump wave election. In 2019, with Trump’s support and in a “safe” seat, she was elected House Republican conference chair. That’s her political zenith, which she scuttled in March 2020 by defending “Dick Cheney’s war” and calling Trump’s foreign policy “reckless” on the Sunday talk shows. Really? Who in 2020 did not know that was D-U-M-B?
You know the rest of Cheney’s story; urged Trump to accept defeat in November 2020, voted to impeach him in January 2021, censured by Wyoming GOP in February 2021, lost House GOP caucus chair in May 2021, named January 6 Committee vice chair in September 2021, bounced from Wyoming GOP in November 2021, and trounced in GOP primary by Harriet Hageman 66% to 29% in August 2022.
Cheney would love you to think she’s this clear-eyed patriot when she is, in fact, a ham-handed politician who faults everyone but herself. She conceded defeat in August by crowing she “could not and would not take” the “election denier” path (like Rep. Elise Stefanik, who’s up by 10 points in New York). She bragged, “Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again” (like Sen. Tim Scott, who’s up by 23.6 points in South Carolina). Are Stefanik and Scott morally bankrupt or clear-eyed politicians?
Despite Cheney’s efforts to thwart it, a Red Wave is building, meaning most voters don’t believe 246 congressional Republicans (93% of GOP) are morally bankrupt for voting against a second Trump impeachment. Examples abound of Republicans rising above Trump without alienating GOP voters, exposing Cheney’s Biggest Lie: “The path was clear. But it would’ve required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election.” That’s not true when Republicans Kemp (GA), Murkowski (AK) and Youngkin (VA) did not “go along with” Trump.
Governor Kemp confirmed Trump’s loss, moved on, and is about to win re-election. Senator Murkowski voted to impeach Trump, moved on, and is about to win re-election. Governor Youngkin didn’t invite Trump into his (winning) campaign, remains Trump-neutral (neither love nor hate), and might ride American Families First to the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2024.
Let’s wrap up this Liz Cheney rant (I’m tired of typing her name and you’re probably tired of reading it). She has no political standing in 90 days and no shot of being the Republican (or Democrat) nominee for president in 2024. She has no friends in the GOP, especially with new Republicans (Kari Lake and Ron DeSantis) in the bully pulpits. Cheney’s not just nearly dead, she’s clearly most sincerely dead (failed and friendless is no way to survive in politics).