Far too many House Republicans have forfeited judgment and decency regarding Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.
In a move surely unprecedented in the history of Congress, more than 100 GOP congressmen have joined as hosts for a fundraiser against one of their own colleagues. It is rare indeed when even a single sitting member openly helps defeat an incumbent of his own party — and even then, it usually would involve some close bond of family or friendship with the colleague’s challenger or perhaps a severe ethical violation by the colleague being opposed.
Nothing approaching such circumstances applies to Cheney. To have so many of these Republicans take arms against Cheney, who less than 15 months ago was a valued and respected part of their leadership, is astonishing and inexcusable.
Cheney’s sin, in their eyes, is that she insists former President Donald Trump was wrong to try to overturn the 2020 election, that the Capitol riot relating thereto was serious and dangerous, and that Congress needs fact-finding to ascertain who contributed to the conflagration (and how) and, more importantly, how to fix systems so nothing similar can happen again. Her insistence on doing so in conjunction with a Democratic-led investigation, against Republican leadership’s attempts to sweep the investigation under the rug, apparently is seen as unforgivable.
Yet can anyone deny that Cheney is acting on principle rather than political expedience? She has put her entire career at risk and been made a pariah in her party, with no obvious political upside.
Agree with her or not, they will gain nothing by defeating her. They just make her a martyr, while the investigatory committee will produce whatever information it would produce even without her. And, considering her Republican voting record that gives them no philosophical reason to oppose her, their stunning, unprecedented violation of political norms in raising money against her is vindictive and petty.
Yet these solons haven’t exerted even a fraction of their anti-Cheney effort to try bringing to justice rioters who came within a single minute of overtaking Vice President Mike Pence’s family while calling for Pence’s execution.
Meanwhile, by comparison with their anti-Cheney fetish, have any of them lifted a finger to defeat other members of their caucus who truly, and repeatedly, have acted beyond all decency? Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona consistently have been associated with white supremacists. Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina consistently does highly objectionable things, some of which sound proto-racist. Cawthorn and Greene have backed Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida stands at least semicredibly accused of sex with an underage girl.
Yet, with these miscreants (as with the House Democrats’ refusal to work actively against their own extremists such as Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both credibly accused of gross anti-Semitism), their fellow House party members look the other way. That’s how strong the tradition is of incumbent congressmen avoiding political action against their party colleagues.
Yet, to repeat, in their childish pique against Cheney, more than 100 House Republicans are raising money against her.
Now consider the candidate they are backing against Cheney. Harriet Hageman is an embarrassment who won’t admit that Trump lost the 2020 election and who now ties herself to Trump despite having once not just opposed him, but called him “racist and xenophobic.” Her latest email fundraising solicitation bears the juvenile subject line “Romney & Cheney sitting in a tree” and accuses Cheney, without any foundation, of “clamoring for war with Russia.”
Oh well. If, on behalf of such a candidate, it takes more than 100 House Republicans to gang up against Liz Cheney, it makes them look like Lilliputians, while she looks like a morally righteous giant — a veritable Brobdingnagian.
