Did McCarthy Create The Liz Cheney We See Today?
I understand that a big chunk of the Republican Party is angry at Congresswoman Liz Cheney – and thinks she should be tossed out of office by the voters of Wyoming. Me too.
Cheney has been condemned by both the Wyoming Republican Party and the National Republican Committee. And now wannabe House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has endorsed Cheney’s primary election opponent. I think all that could be justified – but more on her actions and statement AFTER being booted from leadership. But maybe much of the damage she is doing could have been avoided.
In my judgment, Cheney deserves to be ostracized and thrown out of office by Republicans – but not because she voted to impeach President Trump. I think she sealed her fate with all the things she has done SINCE being booted from her leadership position by McCarthy.
She has not only maintained her belief that Trump acted badly – defending her vote. But she has expanded her animus to the Republican Party generally. She has mounted more general attacks on the Republican Party in general. She has viciously attacked McCarthy (understandable) and others in congressional leadership – more gratuitous than deserved.
Cheney’s greatest sin of the commission was agreeing to serve on House Speaker Pelosi’s kangaroo Select Committee investigating the Capitol Hill riot. Since it was Pelosi who invited her – and Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger – to give the Committee a faux appearance of bipartisanship, Cheney essentially switched political sides.
Besides Kinzinger, Cheney was the only GOP member of the House, who voted to impeach and who accepted Pelosi’s invitation to participate in that bogus one-sided investigation.
She reinforced her GOP apostasy when she and her father – former Vice President Dick Cheney – were the only Republicans to appear on the floor of the House for Pelosi’s moment of silence on the first anniversary of the Capitol Hill riot – which was more of a partisan political stunt than a sincere moment of remembrance.
But did it all have to come to this? I am inclined to think – not. And I blame McCarthy for egregiously mishandling le affaire Cheney at the onset. In fact, I wrote about it at the time – and my worst fears seem to have come to pass.
We must keep in mind that prior to the vote on impeachment, Cheney was in GOP leadership because she was one of the most consistent and dependable conservative Republican votes in Congress. She was at the top of most conservative rating organizations. Ironically, she was everything that Pelosi and the Democrats loathed.
In my previous commentary, I suggested that McCarthy erred in booting Cheney from leadership. At that time, the political disdain for Cheney was coming from Trump – and pretty much Trump alone. One can understand why he was not happy with those Republicans who voted for impeachment – and those in the Senate who voted to convict him in the second impeachment. But only Cheney suffered official rebuke. The others were left to weather their won personal political storms.
Yes, there were Republican officeholders and voters, who believed voting for impeachment was an unforgivable sin. But it was up to them to take any retribution at the polls. It goes along with my general belief that such decisions are best left to the voters and not the decisions of politicians.
I feared that removing Cheney from leadership by edict would elevate her to major national status as a hero to Democrats and a villain for the Republicans. It would further divide the GOP. It literally forced her into the arms of Pelosi & Co.
If McCarthy had just expressed his disappointment with Cheney and let it ride – as he basically did with others in his caucus who voted for impeachment – Cheney would have been constrained in her criticism. She would not have become the prominent pain in the arse that we see today. There was no way she would have – or could have – joined Pelosi’s Select Committee. And if Cheney did not, it is unlikely that Kinzinger would have done it on his own. It would have denied Pelosi the dubious claim of bipartisanship. And … Cheney would have continued as a reliable conservative vote in the House.
Instead, McCarthy’s decision was the proverbial thread on the sweater that unraveled the situation into what we see today – a vehemently hostile Cheney.
As I wrote at the time, I thought McCarthy was making a big mistake – and not his first or last. It is the reason I believe the Republicans in Congress – and the Party generally – would be better served with a Speaker other than McCarthy.
Yes, Cheney should be booted in the upcoming election. I just think all the damage she has done would not have happened were it not for McCarthy’s propensity for bad judgment.
So, there ‘tis.
America will never support any anti-American Communist (DemocRAT) SCUM or a RINO. Trump should have never been impeached and history and facts show this. While the Communist Party was trying to lynch Trump, COVID ran rampant.
America is tired of this scum that somehow thinks they are entitled to our votes.
Uh…: not only has American supported Democrats, in the last midterm they even supported the progressive end of the party much more than ever before. I think you’re going backwards…
Trump wasn’t impeached once, he was impeached twice. The only thing this told us was that the Senate did not convict. Like Bill Clinton, he will be forever impeached. Unlike Bill Clinton, he holds the record for being twice impeached. MAGA – Make America grifters again. This guy even had to steal his tagline from Ronald Reagan. What a grifter
“While the Communist Party tried to lynch Trump, Covid ran rampant.” What does one of these have to do with the other? People are having sex left and right while we tried to lynch Trump too. And only Trumpists brought a gallows and a noose to Lynch Mike Pence. Haven’t seen that on the BLM or antifa side.
Uh….: not only did Americans in droves move away from your Communist Party during the last election cycle, they drubbed your party in the recent special elections.
It’s amazing that after all the wars this country has fought and all the proud heroes that passed while protecting this country that we now have a Communist Regime in power that represents the exact same enemy that thousands died fighting against.
Trump was impeached twice for what??? Having a conversation with the Ukrainians and then supposedly Russian Collusion?
So let’s get this straight… you Cockroach Communist scum tried to frame a sitting American President. Accused the Russian leader of colluding with the American President for 4 solid years and you expect PUTIN to play nice with you Communists???
AMEN!!!!!!
Yeah, it was a real red wave. In a surprise move, Republican took Virginia including the legislature. Democrats held New Jersey. Democrats took New York City mayoral as well as Boston. Matter fact, of the 40 mayoral elections, Republicans took less than 25%. Certainly, a wake up call for Democrats. And congratulations to the Republicans. But a drubbing? OK, go with it. Mission accomplished.
The Boston mayors seat was taken by a democratic progressive. You like to call these folks communist. Matter of fact, you like to call all Democrats communist. There are less than 10,000 registered communist in the United States. There are millions of democratic progressives. But there are many more Democrats that are not progressives, myself included. These progressives are really socialist. You just like to term them as communist so you can put them under the umbrella of the evil Empire. They are anything but. But it just seems so damned convenient so it suits you. Just another lie. I mean you say that all Democrats are communist which is just clearly not true. Perhaps most communist vote Democrat just the same way that most racists vote Republican. But all Republicans are not racist. And all Democrats are not communist and they are not alligned with Putin.
With regards to Trump impeachment, yes, we did not catch the Senate for conviction. However, I just don’t see in any universe where a political candidate has over 100 meetings with Russians, including their spy agencies, and people don’t say that just doesn’t seem right. What reason would they ever have for meeting with the Russians over 100 times? Why would they ever give the Russians the data profile for US voters? Sure, we couldn’t catch him, but there was plenty of smoke. On the second one, it was pure mafia. When Trump says “I have a favor to ask,” Zelinski knew exactly what the Don meant. Republicans in The Senate decided to give him a pass. In both impeachments, he’s as guilty as Bill Clinton was on his impeachment. End of story.
Frank Stetson … you are never going to make it as a political analyst. In analyzing an election, you look at the swing vote. Democrats will mostly win the safe Democrat offices. Republicans will win the safe Republicans offices. But what happens in the middle? Republicans flipped a lot of seats across the country. Democrats damn few. That makes it a win for the GOP. Even Democrats — including Biden — said the GOP did well apart from Trump. And remember, Virginia was a flip — and one the experts said the Democrats were sure to win. And New Jersey was a cliffhanger — and one the Dems were supposed to win in a walk. Dem mayors are almost always going to win re-election — as to most Republican mayors. But check out the number of state legislative seats that flipped.
Larry, thanks for the critique. I am not a political analyst. But I do like it when you start each of your posts with a little bit of Snark. Isn’t that something that old man do? Ha ha.
However, I think we are in agreement although why you cannot see that I do not know.. I said it was not a drubbing, and it wasn’t. I said Virginia was a surprise, and it was. As in a flip. And yes I agree, New Jersey was close but we held. I also said it was a wake up call to the Democrats.
But it was not a drubbing. It was not a red wave. And if that’s what you think it was, you may get a wake up call this year. Just like you thought the trump election was a mandate. Obviously, history proved you wrong there.
One thing you didn’t mention was the number of progressives that did get in for the Democrats. For example, who would’ve ever thought Boston would go progressive. This rising terror trend is a direct backlash to Trumpism. The Nation continues to widen the divide.
Larry, all I said here was congratulations to the Republicans for your win. And it was not a drubbing or a red wave. It was indeed a wake up call for the Democrats.
Frank, Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries…
So, Joe, you’re basically telling me you think my mother is a whore and my father is a drunk. Sweet.
Amazingly Joe you do this because you’re such a staunch supporter of free speech. That’s why all these at home in attacks, foul language, lies, are all accepted by you on your site.
We can even copy each other‘s names and post; the ultimate expression of free speech. However, Joe is special, you can’t copy his name. He is protected.
Joe also does not allow third person attacks. That’s where he firmly draws the line on what he allows for free-speech on the site. However, Joe is special, he’s allowed to attack my mother and he is allowed to attack my father because his free speech on his site is more free than ours. He is special.
As always as the way with bullies and tyrants, what they say is not what they do as they give themselves special privileges and special acceptances. Joe is no different, just a little more subtle.
I did it because you said you liked snark.
Poor Frank…
sorry, I meant good snark.
Special Larry
Why do they say Utah, shes the U.S. representative for Wyoming. Hum.
oops..
Nice edit…. thanks.
Yeah, we need to get Cheney out of the Republican Party. How dare she have her own thoughts. Even if they are correct. She needs to go. If the republican party cannot march lockstep with Trump, what good are they. Bunch of commie socialist that’s with her. How dare she attempt to determine what happened on January 6 via congressional investigations. That should’ve never happened. It’s a partisan witch hunt. And trying to get to the bottom of the things she proves she’s wrong for even trying. No Republican would ever want Congress to investigate January 6. Everyone should stand against investigating on January 6. We just don’t want to know what happen on January 6 because we already know, they were patriots,
But I am pretty sure you’ve already gotten your way and she will never become a representative from Utah.
I appreciate your article, but what does Liz Cheney have to do with UTAH???
bummer
Maybe she is going to move there. .LOL … but good catch.