Liz Cheney coulda been a contender … she coulda been somebody

If the headline has a familiar ring, you may be recalling Marlon Brando’s iconic lines from the 1955 classic Oscar winning movie, “On the Waterfront.”  Those lines remind me of Liz Cheney.  Allow me to explain.

Prior to her vote to impeach Trump in the second round of impeachments, she was arguably the most important and powerful woman in the Republican Party.  She was the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney – who served under the very popular Ronald Reagan.  She had an impeccable conservative record while serving in Congress.  She had risen to the leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference – making her the highest-ranking woman in the GOP House caucus.  She was one of the most gifted speakers in the entire Republican Party.  She was winning her elections in Wyoming with up to 70 percent of the vote.

Then her political career took a turn to the left — and down the path to political oblivion.

Initially, her fall from grace was not her fault.  She was the victim of a maladroit decision by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.  As retribution for her vote to impeach Trump, McCarthy fired her from her leadership position.  At the time he did that I called it an inappropriate and boneheaded decision.  It was an excessive punishment considering her longstanding conservative record and loyal service to the GOP.  McCarthy needlessly created the lady scorned.

Had McCarthy allowed her impeachment vote to pass as a vote of conscience — and allowed her to retain her leadership position – there would have been no Liz Cheney to serve on kangaroo January 6^th Committee.  Without Cheney, it is very unlikely that Adam Kinzinger would have had the testicular fortitude to sign up.  And without Cheney and Kinzinger, Pelosi’s committee would have been seen for the partisan fraud that it was.

Most likely, Cheney would have been reelected to her seat in Congress – and still a good candidate for a leadership position in the future.

All the blame for how the events unfolded cannot be assigned to McCarthy’s initial blunder.  Cheney took the woman scorned position a ran with it.  The fact that she would even consider playing political patty cake with Pelosi revealed a flaw in her character.

Not only was Cheney anti-Trump, she devolved into an anti-Republican and anti-conservative activist.  He was on the campaign trail endorsing and raising money for left-wing Democrat candidates.  In endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Cheney made herself a pillar in the radical left-wing establishment – as did Kinzinger. 

Cheney’s and Kinzinger’s full blown apostasy appear to have been calculated on jobs and money.  I have no doubt that Cheney was the Republican Harris had in mind when she said she would appoint a Republican to the Cabinet.  And Kinzinger seemed to be looking for a face job on left-wing media – following in the tradition of other former GOP congressmen, such as Joe Scarborough, David Jolly and Joe Walsh

But Harris lost, and Cheney is now left out in the cold. She will get a job.  Maybe as a college professor or left-wing think tank. 

In this tale of a political downfall, one can speculate on the “what it.”   What if McCarthy had not booted Cheney out of her leadership position – and what if she had not taken her bitterness to the extreme?

I think it is safe to say that Cheney would be a contender for the presidency – with the potential of being the first female President.  After all, it was President Clinton who said that the first woman President is most likely to be a Republican. 

Yes … Liz Cheney could have been somebody.

So, there ‘tis.