I should start off by saying I’m neither a conservative nor from Wyoming, but I didn’t think that Mike Enzi had done anything to encourage a primary challenger. When I heard Liz Cheney was announcing a Senate bid, I thought there was maybe something I didn’t know, but initial polls seem to back my initial impression. Is this just hubris? Or does she have some sort of ace up her sleeve?
“Back out of the race, or my dad will shoot you in the face. Then have you waterboarded in an undisclosed location.”
Wouldn’t have to be true to be a great threat. 
Probably just feels like she ought to run and get it over with.
I can imagine there’s talk around the table at holidays and such.
She’s the next generation neocon, but it seems they’d like to keep that on the down low for now: She was chairman of Keep America Safe, yet all web presence for that organization was scrubbed just before she announced.
Where to get your start in politics? If you’re Liz, run for the US Senate. Don’t bother messing around in a statehouse or US House, just start right at the top. If there’s an incumbent from your own party in the way, just call him “confused”. What a classless, arrogant bitch. Chip off the old block.
Is she just fronting for her dad, perhaps? Who’s *really *the candidate?
She moved to Wyoming to run, maybe with the expectation Enzi was going to retire. He isn’t, and I guess she decided or someone convinced her that since she had already gone to all the trouble of getting ready to campaign she might as well run against him. I wonder if there’s anything more to it than that. He’s not that old and he’s not a moderate.
Did she claim when she moved to Wyoming that it had nothing to do with politics?
I’ve heard she has tons of money behind her, anyone know if that’s the case?
Big names draw big money. But as a bona fide Tea Party supporter, I have no interest in her candidacy and have no issues with Mike Enzi.
Although I really wish Alan Simpson hadn’t retired. That’s a standup guy.
I’m not a fan of Liz Cheney, but you think Hillary Clinton was “a classless, arrogant bitch” for starting her political career by moving to New York and running for Senate there rather than “messing around in the statehouse or the US House”?
Hillary didn’t call a sitting US Senator “confused”. Nor has she spent 4+ years making continuous and often groundless slams against a sitting president.
Plus Hillary Clinton played a huge role in a very successful Presidency. She was at least as important as Al Gore. She wasn’t a co-President, but she was at least a co-VP in terms of her participation in policymaking.
It’s one of those things that can’t be bragged about publicly, but when people say that Clinton has experience and gravitas, they ain’t referring to her time as a junior New York Senator.
Pretty good gravitas, considering. But she has too much dignity to flaunt them.
More political acumen than dignity. Her weakness is that she won’t show the world her real self. She hides behind more handling than any candidate I’ve ever seen.
Enzi’s not really well liked by the Tea Party and groups like that. They think he’s been in Washington too long, and are mad that he supported the internet sales tax.
I’m a New Yorker, specifically a Western New Yorker, and I agree with this.
Hilary moved in, called me a hillbilly, and got elected running against an empty suit thanks to NYC voters. I don’t know if she realized it herself or one of her staff informed her, but she eventually stopped talking about the rest of the state as this untapped wilderness about halfway through her first time.
Captain Amazing brings up a good point, Marley. There’s more to being a Tea Party than being far right on the ideological scale.
Problem is, I don’t know that Liz Cheney, the daughter of the ex-CEO of Haliburton, is going to change Washington.
The big difference was Moynihan had announced he was retiring. Clinton wasn’t trying to take a Senate seat away from a member of her own party.
I’m surprised by this. Clinton’s campaign was actually notable for how much she traveled outside of NYC and throughout the state. She made sure to stage events in every county of the state and she was able to discuss local issues when she did so.
I was thinking, “wasn’t she born there?”, but no- the internetz say she was born in Wisconsin.
So, yeah. Kind of a crass move.