For the umpteenth time, we have had headlines like this:
And from her…nothing.
Why doesn’t she come out on the offensive? Is it me, or does her silence make her look weak?
Get off the matt, Liz!
And…do what? She still has her seat, and fought off a challenge to her leadership position in the House Republican Caucus. The censure was political theater. It had no real impact on her. I’m certainly not a Republican party insider, but I don’t think publicly largely ignoring the censure while quietly working behind the scenes against Trump loyalists is self-evidently the wrong strategy. She’s a political professional, and the daughter of a consummate party insider. I suspect she has some idea of what she’s doing.
The state party won’t be giving her any re-election funding.
If the Wyoming state Republican party committee has the same membership by 2022, I’m sure that’s true. But between her father’s connections and her now-solid bipartisan appeal as a “sane” Republican, I don’t think she’s going to have any problem fund-raising on her own (just for one example, if the Lincoln Project is still a going concern in 2022, they’re almost certainly going to make getting her through the 2022 primary a major priority).
I’m sure she’ll be facing a primary challenge in 2022, but if she gets through that, right now she’s a solid lock for re-election in the general.
The question is, is she better off staying on-brand as a pragmatic, hard-working, responsible public official who is also a staunch party loyalist and just shrugging off the censure (while possibly quietly maneuvering behind the scenes against Trumpists in the Wyoming GOP)? Or should she come out swinging as an anti-Trump firebrand and directly challenge the Wyoming GOP?
Again, I’m not a Republican insider, I have no expert opinion (I did study political science at the graduate level, but that was a lifetime ago). But, a low-key approach, just letting this whole mess blow over, spending the next two years concentrating on pragmatic legislative accomplishments and constituent services, and banking on not many Wyoming voters caring about the censure two years from now, just doesn’t seem to me to be self-evidently the wrong strategy.
+1 to gdave from a Wyoming resident of 60 years standing.
She has NOT apologized or backed down, which is pretty hardline, under the circumstances. I am honestly surprised.
Fighting back by oh, say, things like voting for impeachment?
The first rule of an incumbent facing a primary challenge is don’t feed the fire. The challenge is fueled by outrage. The more you do that keeps the issue outraging your base on the front page, the more likely that they’ll dig in on you as the enemy. As @gdave says, much better to keep her head down and let this blow over. And the next two years will give Cheney plenty of opportunity to redirect their rage at the Biden Administration, and for her to position herself as leading the opposition to his socialist, atheist assault on everything that America stands for.
I can’t believe those politically correct Wyoming GOPers, trying to cancel Cheney! Will cancel culture ever stop??
How dare she inform her constituents that The Emperor really does have no clothes.
I’m amazed at how fast the GOP base turned on the Bush/Cheney/McCain/Romney wing they adored for 20+ years. Will it really take that much to turn them against Trump in two or four years. I think the so-called “sane” Republicans have as much chance of prevailing in upcoming primaries as Trump’s acolytes do. At least Cheney is openly picking a side.
“If you’re not on offense, you are on defense.”
She gets painted as a liberal traitor in every news cycle. You think the Wyoming press isn’t carrying this? This how conservative media gets people to vote against their own interests. They have identified her as an enemy and tell the populous that she has betrayed them. And they are the only voices that the voters are hearing. At this rate she will never survive a primary challenge.
Because even those who would support her are wondering where her balls are.
Just for the record, Representative Cheney did an interview this morning with Fox News:
Genuine question: Are you a Wyoming resident?
I don’t personally know that much about Wyoming state politics. I honestly don’t know how her constituents are taking all of this. Nationally, she appears to be polling poorly with Republicans. But I haven’t seen any polls in Wyoming. And she’s got over a year before the 2022 primary.
I’m a moderate Democrat. I consider Liz Cheney to be a conservative Republican with whom I have strong but reasonable disagreements. I don’t support her in general, but I certainly support her against the Trumpists within the GOP. I, for one, am absolutely not “wondering where her balls are.”
Go, Liz, GO!!!
I just had this sort of hallucinatory vision of political parties and media organizations suddenly deciding to compete on the basis of factual accuracy, nerdily nitpicking minutiae to see who can get the most realistically correct description or analysis of a situation. Basically turning the whole country into one giant SDMB.
Not all that likely to happen, I know.
I wouldn’t call this lying down:
She will certainly face a primary but there may be so many people running she can win easily. Might have to go to a runoff if Wyoming requires that .
As if the Cheneys needed party funding.
Good point – pull a reverse Trump, if there are ten hair-on-fire loons vs. one normal conservative, the normal conservative wins. The trickier bit is if the Hair On Fire Loon faction is in control and tries to exclude her from the ballot/debates.