When Liz Cheney tweeted this yesterday:
I figured there must be a bunch of long knives out for her. Sure enough:
As a cohort of House Republicans angle to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as conference chair, the names reportedly floated to replace the House GOP leadership’s most ardent critic of former President Donald Trump appear to primarily be women who have defended him.
Congressional aides told Axios that among their considerations are Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Ann Wagner (R-MO) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN).
None any of the women discussed as potential replacements voted to impeach Trump in February or during his first impeachment in 2019. On Jan. 6, Stefanik and Walorski had also objected to the Electoral College certification of the presidential election.
Elise Stefanik is a good example of a Republican putting her finger in the air and figuring out which way the wind is blowing. One could hope that redistricting would put her in a tougher seat (New York lost one seat after the 2020 census) but I don’t see it from the current map.
I’ve said it before, but Cheney is in a weak position at home and in Congress. She didn’t have the political backing to run for the Senate seat vacated by Mike Enzi — instead, the absolutely terrible Cynthia Lummis won it. The fact that Cheney didn’t even try shows how little pull she has in Wyoming, despite her name. Her dad has been out of the state for 30 years, and she’s a carpetbagger herself in a state where almost every pickup has a “native” bumper sticker. My guess is that another Republican like Lummis, who voted against impeachment and against certifying the election, will give Liz a run for her money in the 2022 primary. Losing her job as conference chair is just the beginning.
Don’t worry though, Jennifer Rubin has a lot of suggestions for ways Cheney could fail after she loses her primary:
If she loses a primary in her House reelection race, she could run as a third-party candidate. She could form her own party with similarly disgusted Republicans. She could run for president in 2024 in a valiant effort to rescue her party from itself. She could form a caucus within the GOP akin to the moderates in the Democratic Leadership Council in the 1990s, who made way for a party shift to the center and the election of President Bill Clinton.
I wish I could get some of whatever substance JRubin is tripping on when she writes these columns, because it’s clearly a hell of a drug.
Cheryl Rofer
Cheney and Romney are heightening the contradictions. The business wing of the Repubican Party has to go somewhere. But it looks like they’re fine with staying with the insurrectionists and radicals. That break has been predicted for some time now, and it hasn’t happened.
Third parties are hard to do in America, and the insurrectionists are in full control of the Republican Party.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Twenty years of being a fear addict and now she broke free. So of course she wants to rescue her friends.
zhena gogolia
Stefanik is the spawn of hell.
lowtechcyclist
@Cheryl Rofer:
This. If Cheney’s POV was widely held in the GQP, this wouldn’t be an issue. But it’s very much a minority POV there.
She’s right about what that means, and good on her for saying what she’s saying. But there’s no saving this GQP.
WereBear
The Republican Party is splitting up?!?!
We know who will take custody of the “children.”
WereBear
@zhena gogolia:
Tell me about it! I’m in her district!
MattF
I learned how to spell C-H-E-N-E-Y (without an ‘A’) by repeatedly writing that her dad is a fascist liar— but, IMO, Liz is doing the right thing here. There’s a small chance that she’ll benefit in the long run, but I think she mainly despises TFG.
mvr
Most of what you write here is fine, but I think this bit is inaccurate unless those have suddenly popped up over the past 8 months since I was last at my cabin near Encampment. The “native” stickers tend to show up in states with lots of wealthy in-migration. Oregon in the 70s before the recession of the early 80s. Colorado more recently. Perhaps there are such stickers around Jackson, but I don’t see them on WY vehicles in the Southeast and South Central parts of the state.
Jerzy Russian
Is rooting for injuries the proper course of action here? Please advise and I can act accordingly.
PaulWartenberg
The fantasy about Liz Cheney being a third-party Savior for the GOP is the same punditry fantasies floating about in 2016 when it became clear the pussy-grabbing Orange Shitgibbon was going to win control of the GOP.
These fantasists can’t wrap their heads around the reality that there is nothing left in the GOP worth saving. It has long passed the chance of recovery when they started RINO hunting back in the 1990s.
There is no third party savior coming to the rescue. I wrote that in 2016 and it remains true today.
The only reason the Republicans haven’t faded completely is because our electoral system abhors a single major party. The Democrats are the Either to the Republicans’ Or. But the minor parties like the Libertarians are too small and too underfunded to be capable of rising up to fill the void should the GOP collapse entirely.
It’s going to have to take full electoral failure by the Republicans for any recovery to occur. But the Republicans have worked overtime into rigging the voting process – the suppression bills, the gerrymandering, the outright sleaze – to ensure they can never collapse like that.
So we’re screwed. Unless we can convince half of those 70 million who voted for trump in 2020 to walk away (let alone flip to Democratic voting), the Republicans are going nowhere but down and taking the rest of us with them.
Jeffro
Cheney, Romney, Kinzinger, Walsh, Flake…I applaud them all for finally saying what needed to be said a long time ago. But if they’re going to have any impact at all, they need to make a statement as a group (“the former guy is a corrupt con man and right-wing media is full of lies”) and then join the Democratic Party.
Make a splash, go out with a bang…but don’t expect anything to happen unless y’all step up and step up publicly, somewhat-principled conservatives.
germy
JMG
Liz Cheney’s real constituency is very far away from Wyoming — it’s inside the Beltway. She will find a home there with some forum in which she can spout off to her heart’s content. Don’t get me wrong. What she’s doing is praiseworthy. But like Mitt Romney, she’s in a position to tell the Trumpists to fuck off whereas the average GOP elected official, too dumb to find an equivalent private sector job except maybe pretending to run Dad’s Audi dealership, is not.
Wag
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m afraid that you’re right, but the fact that Romney got loudly booed, but was not censured in the end makes me wonder if the voice of the GQP hasn’t been hijacked by loud-mouthed bullies, and there might be a sizable group that is too intimidated to fight back.
But I’m probably wrong.
karen marie
@MattF: Oh, my sweet summer child.
Almost Retired
The GOP is on artificial life support, thanks to the electoral college and creative map-making, among other factors. And, to strain this analogy, certain “body parts” are thriving (deep red states), just not enough to keep the entire body healthy and off the ventilator.
I would imagine more and more states will be like California, where the Republicans are largely irrelevant, and the contests are at the primary level. The non-insane Republicans here call themselves “Business Democrats,” and promote many of the former policies of the more moderate GOP, while mostly avoiding the culture wars. Meanwhile, the Republic remnants here howl and throw poo at transgendered people (so far, at least, that’s just a metaphor), and descend into irrelevancy.
Jeffro
@PaulWartenberg: we don’t have to convince 35M GQP voters to ‘flip’ on their party…we’re already winning (already beat trumpov by 7M votes, already have both houses of Congress). We already won two Senate special elections in Georgia.
All we need to do is a) keep it up and b) get 10 or even 5% of the GQP to lose enthusiasm/see all the corruption/get tired of being lied to by RW media.
And for “B”, that cause would be greatly assisted by the somewhat-principled conservatives making a last public stand/plea for sanity. They won’t win back their party (and can’t get a viable third party going, either) but they can at least ensure that the current crop of Q-nut officials pays for what they’ve done.
waspuppet
@JMG: The number of Republicans who are in Congress because they literally couldn’t get any other job is not precisely knowable, but definitely not zero.
As for Liz Cheney, you’re exactly right. She’s going to be the Scott Walker of 2024: Only about 15 people in the United States want her to be president, but all 15 of them are on cable TV all day every day, so she’ll be considered a serious candidate.
Losing her primary in 2022 won’t dent the perception; neither will leaving Super Tuesday 2024 with one delegate. Only until DeSantis wraps up the nomination will these brave 15 give up the dream, at which point they’ll start talking about how they never realized DeSantis was so smart and serious too.
Fair Economist
@PaulWartenberg:
It’s not the electoral system. There are a fair number of essentially single-party states. The normal state for the US, actually, is what I call a “party and a half” system where one party is dominant and the other gains power only when the first messes up. Examples would be Democrats dominating Whigs before the Civil War, Republicans dominating Democrats afterwards, and Democrats dominating Republicans after Roosevelt. The current national system of a close partisan split enduring a full decade is unprecedented.
The problem is a powerful set of propaganda networks, especially RW media and the loony churches.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Republican party splitting up? We aren’t that lucky. It looks to me like maybe a ratio of maybe 2 people on one side vs. 200 on the other.
What we are seeing is the new Republican party.
sdhays
I’m reminded that Liz Cheney’s big splash in Wyoming politics was when she tried to primary Mike Enzi on the weight of her name alone and was humiliated. She’s someone who thinks she’s a much bigger fish than she really is.
But she got into the Republican House Leadership on her name only tangentially – donors gave her money that she gave to her colleagues. So I guess the big question is: can she hold onto the donors? Or are they ok giving to someone more Q-friendly?
Morzer
“She could form a caucus within the GOP”
What if you held a party within a party and nobody came?
sab
@WereBear: If you ever have a BJ meetup, may I come
ETA I don’t live near your part of the world but I do like it.
WereBear
Just FYI someone MUST front page Joy Reid. Why #Tuckums is trending. It’s like eating a whole birthday cake by myself.
https://twitter.com/JakeLobin/status/1389385391531335685?s=20
Anonymous At Work
Anyone else notice how Cheney and all her potential successors at the #3 spot share one defining characteristic? Indeed, that characteristic may even be said to be central to “identity”.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@mvr:
I saw a lot of them when I lived in Laramie but that was a while ago. They usually had a Cowboy Joe on them.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Wow!
sab
@Anonymous At Work: Gender or money? Tell me which.
If you are investing in stocks, sell anything if they put a woman in charge. The higherups think it is hopeless. Some of the gals are hopeless ( (Carli) some are competent (Meg), but all of the hireups agree the Company is beyond the help of a competent white man.
WaterGirl
@Anonymous At Work: I had the same thought – all women. They are going for “see, we’re not sexist, we have a woman in leadership!”.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
Except they’re not Democrats. We and they have very little common ground in terms of ideology or political agenda.
Like it or not, never-Trumper/anti-insurrection Republicans have nowhere to go. Best they can do is create a splinter party.
Sure, third parties never win anything. The reason for doing it is to give similarly-minded voters somewhere to go. 74 million people voted for Trump in November, and due to the Electoral College, we won the election by a hair’s breadth. If such a third party could siphon off a million voters from the GQP, it would help us in states we barely won in 2020, and maybe put a couple others into play. Every little bit helps.
mvr
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Could be my memory is going. The Colorado stickers are the ones I remember these days. Now I’ll have to check.
rikyrah
Not my business.
I’m just scrolling by…LOL
Pass the popcorn.
Kay
This is my dream but it will never happen. They’ll never win again if they split into 20/80.
sab
@WereBear: Yikes. Tucker, with all his step-family money, still couldn’t buy his way into Harvard. They could only buy him into Trinity (good school but not Harvard.) And Joyce got into Harvard on brains alone.
Ha ha!
Roger Moore
@Wag:
I’m sure bullying is part of the story, but it’s obvious the bullies make up a substantial chunk of the Republican voter base. It’s not clear exactly how big a chunk, but a majority of Republicans polled agree with a bunch of the crazy stuff about the election being stolen and how evil the Democrats are. They may be working to shout down the intra-party opposition, but they can hope to do that because the people who really care about the truth are not a majority within the party.
karen marie
@Jeffro: You appear to be under the inexplicable impression that “rightwing media” is a special, isolated problem. Your fantasy group will do nothing but add a refreshed (now with added heroism!) narrative to the both-siderism from the so-called “liberal media.” How many Congressional Republicans who support the Big Lie in word and deed have been asked about that when appearing on a political chat show? Pretty close to if not zero.
These feckless few – who have never stood up against their party’s racism and greed – are not brave or principled or selfless. All of them are positioning themselves to run for president. They’ve calculated that post-That Fucking Guy, while crazy may work locally, it’s not going to fly nationally. So far their calculation is working. They’ve got Democrats pointing to them as paragons of virtues.
Gullibility is not a good look, and wishful thinking will not restore this country to functional.
The Moar You Know
@Jeffro: I don’t want them. I wanna be really clear on that. It’s great to have principled opposition, but there is no place in the Democratic Party for people like Romney and Cheney, Mirkowski, et al. Their values are not ours, their goals are not ours, and I don’t want them diluting and showboating over what has been a winning message to the American people. They can form their own damn party. They can QUIT VOTING FOR ANTI-HUMAN LEGISLATION. When that happens, I’ll take them as principled allies outside our tent. But not inside. It’s bad enough to have to write bills that Sinema will vote for. Can you imagine Dems having to write and vote for bills that Romney will sign off on? No fucking thank you.
Baud
@karen marie:
Yeah, no one is being gullible about them. Republicans aren’t shy about citing wayward Dems who parrot the GOP message, and we shouldn’t be timid either
ETA: Although I agree that they have no place in the Democratic Party.
Karen
@Jeffro: The problem is she’s too conservative for the Dems. She’s more conservative than even Conservadems. She’s in the “donut hole.”
Karen
@Jeffro: The problem is she’s too conservative for the Dems. She’s more conservative than even Conservadems. She’s in the “donut hole.”
Do you think that she believes what she’s saying or is it a cry for help?
sdhays
@Kay: If George Soros was 10% the person they pretend to believe he is, he would already have funded this party to the hilt and it would have already happened. That’s what Republicans do (it seems that it’s a major secret/not-so-secret ingredient for their domination in the Floriduh legislature).
Liberal rich people either aren’t that diabolical or simply aren’t that liberal.
Bex
@mvr: I had a T-shirt back in the day that said, “Wyoming Native–Endangered Species.” I got it in Jackson Hole. At that time it probably just referred to population loss. Since I am a Wyoming native and didn’t live there, I qualified.
WereBear
@sab: We all have Cabin Fever. Let’s start a Dis Stefanik one!
PaulWartenberg
@Jeffro: It HAS to be utter collapse, full electoral rejection across every state even the Deep Red ones. The existing Republican leadership has to get a message they can’t ignore that their racist sexist divisive agenda doesn’t sell at all.
And sad to say, given how deep into the racist sexist BS the Republican voting base is, that doesn’t look like it’ll happen any time soon.
So we’re stuck, dragging the dying corpse of the GOP across the desert of the real world.
MisterForkbeard
@Jeffro: I’m glad they’re doing this. I also wish they’d done this back in January and been very forceful about it. They might have actually gotten some additional republicans on board.
Instead, they waited until conservative ‘wisdom’ had solidified around the idea that Biden stole the election and Trump was right to try and overturn the election results.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Those people booing Romney were stepping on his killer joke about Biden’s socialism.
The line/s between dumb, crazy and mendacious can be hard to see with a lot of Republicans– Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Gym Jordan– Romney’s not dumb or crazy. He knows what “socialism” mean
ETA: Look at the 1/6 Commission, that McConnell– with Manchin’s help– is killing off with ‘anti-fa’ poison pills. Has Romney spoken up on that, specifically? has Dick Jr? I have a vague memory of Kinzger doing so, but I could be overestimating him.
Baud
@rikyrah: Agree with this attitude.
Geminid
I would not count Cheney out in her primary contest next year. There is no runoff, and there will likely be more than one trumpist challenger. It seems like everybody wants to run for office these days.
sab
@WereBear: I am all in. Can I get you to mildly like my guy Tim Ryan?
karen marie
@Kay: They still have no position beyond “MOAR TAX CUTS!” That’s not enough to build a party on. And they’ll never beat those committed to the bit on abortion, guns and “our unique culture.”
MisterForkbeard
@Geminid: Yes. I expect her to stay in Congress if that’s what she wants. I also expect her to lose her leadership position to someone who will commit treason.
zhena gogolia
@WereBear:
It’s great. I’d rather watch that than Liz Cheney.
OzarkHillbilly
@mvr: I’m going to NE WY next week. Ask when I get back.
sab
When we all get vaccinated I want a BJ national tour of meetups. My husband shudders at the thought
ETA but he can stay home, feeding the cats.
Villago Delenda Est
The “Democratic Leadership Council” seriously fucked up the Dems at a crucial time that allowed the takeover of the GQp by fascists.
germy
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Same here. Compared to the dance of death currently ongoing in India, these are extremely small potatoes.
WereBear
@sab: That’s a tough one.
But for YOU, I’ll do it :) Even if we have to drink wine in front of Zoom :)
sab
@schrodingers_cat: A year ago I did not thnk me or my spouse would survive. Now we are both vaccinated. I cannot even imagine how your family feels.
sab
@WereBear: He has improved. His wife is amazing, and he listens to her.
Geminid
@PaulWartenberg: I’ve noticed some establishment Virginia Republicans hanging back from party politics. They are not giving up, they just know that right now they can’t win an all-out intraparty fight with the “populist” coalition of tea party cranks and political evangelicals. So they will watch the radicals wreck the train for another cycle or two, and hope to pick up the pieces after.
It may be a very hollowed out Virginia Republican party by then, though. A Wason Center poll of registered Virginia voters released in February showed that only 25% identified as Republicans. That is down from 31% in the November 2019 Wason Center poll.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Most of my family is in Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra. Its Chief Minister (like the Prime Minister but at the state level, so like our Governor) has done a much better job so far. They have brought down their infection and mortality rate compared to the beginning of last month. People are getting the help they need even though the situation continues to be serious. No desperate pleas for help for medicines/oxygen etc.
So they are doing relatively better than the rest of the country.
leeleeFL
I know who Cheney is and I know what she is. She is not an ally, but it must be recognized that she has stood up for what is right, instead of groveling like all the others. So has Romney. I do not for a moment think she will vote with us, nor will he. But the Profiles In Courage board has at least 2 candidates. Maybe a shared Prize this season? Attention must be paid!
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist:
You forget the mendacity of the typical GOP moderate. Most of those people, if they switched, could adopt positions roughly the same as Joe Manchin and sell themselves as conservadems. Don’t know if it would work to get them elected in their states, but if it did, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind playing the role of “I didn’t leave the GOP, it left me.” It’s not like any of them have any principles, after all.
J R in WV
I continue to hope and believe that a number of Repugnant office holders — to be specific, members of congress — will be indicted for participating in the Jan 6th insurrection, expelled from congress as a result, and causing an eruption among Republicans as those traitors are convicted and sent away for years.
That might repair the damage Trump has created within the repugnant party, or not. I think it would throw a lot of voters off their electoral fence with regard to voting R straight down the ticket.
But I am an incurable optimist, I see the worst in the future, work against it, expect it to never happen. Sometimes we Democrats actually win~!!~
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Almost Retired: I get the impression the attitude with the Cal GOP is “As long as I got my safe red seat, I don’t care we are perpetually out of office” and it sure seems like that attitude is going nationwide now.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@PaulWartenberg:
5-10M would do the trick. I think you’d be looking at Roosevelt’s congressional numbers.
sab
@J R in WV: Sad thought (which I share)i s that the only way to clean the Rep. party is to prosecute them. Horrible lot of voters.
These are my neighbors, and I know who they are, who their children are, and who their dogs are.
I mostly like the dogs, but I won’t get over the people or children ever. They are an active threat to my grandkids.
Rand Careaga
@WereBear: Remind me never to get on Ms. Reid’s bad side.
lowtechcyclist
I’d be expecting more like 95/5 or 97/3 than 80/20. But every bit that can be chiseled off the GQP helps.
lowtechcyclist
@Citizen Alan:
Yabbut if they didn’t bring any voters with them, it wouldn’t matter. And I really don’t think they would.
leeleeFL
I just saw Tony Blinken forearm bump with someone in Afghanistan. I suddenly teared up and thought I am so proud of him, no proud of us! I AM SO PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT! I have been sniffly for a few minutes now!
I KNOW, I AM SUCH A DORK!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Citizen Alan: How do you all explain John Cole then?
They aren’t going to have a Road to Damascus moment, it’s going to be a series of “oh, that’s right, that’s bullshit” moments until they end up at Blue.
All this yelling and screaming from the right is basically them telling their own brains “I can’t hear you thinking”
rikyrah
@Karen:
She’s not a Democrat. I have nothing in common with her. Period. I don’t want our tent wide enough to accommodate the likes of Liz Cheney.
Repatriated
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
As long as they can preclude Dem supermajorities, they can block tax policy.
This is an improvement over the way it was until a few years ago, when they could also block annual budgets too and thereby extort their pet policies.
But the point is, it’s not about their individual petty reactionary fiefdoms, it’s about working toward a blocking caucus. Their success, or lack thereof, almost always hinges on Dem turnout.
Jeffro
@lowtechcyclist: I didn’t say they were Democrats or would be Democrats or that we’d share much of a political agenda…other than the need to protect the country from trumpists gaining power.
And as for the ‘siphon off votes’ thing – yes, I said that upthread. =)
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Is he from the same party as Modi?
Jeffro
@karen marie: I’m trying to make sense out of this while ignoring the insults and neither is working. I don’t have a ‘fantasy group’ – I’m noting that if the somewhat-principled conservatives want to make a real impact, instead of slowly withering away, they need to band together, go public, and then join the Dems until the trumpist threat has receded.
@The Moar You Know: we don’t have to give them anything for joining, chief. Just say, “Sure, you can sit with us and add to our numbers”.
@Karen: same as with TMYK: they’re welcome to sit with us and add to our numbers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
speaking of ex-Republicans and conversion: ex-Republican ex-Governor of Florida Charlie Crist is running for Governor as a Democrat
ETA: running as Friend Of Barack was something a whole lot of extremely on-line Democrats couldn’t figure out in the 2020 primary. One guy got it…. whatever happened to him?
Jeffro
@PaulWartenberg: I have news for you: they’re not going to collapse in the deep red states. But we don’t have to be stuck with them, and we won’t be.
Jeffro
@germy: yeah but he tweets that EVERY day =)
karen marie
@Baud: I’m not complaining about them being cited, it’s the lauding them and suggesting there’s common ground. The “good” Republicans are no different than their publicly insurrectionist colleagues except in degree. They’re perfectly happy with their party and object only to the loudmouths spoiling it for them.
karen marie
@Villago Delenda Est: Of course. Dems are to blame for everything.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Converts, man. Just the other day I was skimming through the dead-tree NYT and there was a picture of Arianna Huffington. Remember her? She went from being Newt Gingrich’s sidekick (at least she tried like hell) to leading “Fuck Gore” chants with Tom Morello at the 2000 Dem convention in the space of about two years. I think the NYT referred to her as a “Manhattan socialite”
Redshift
@Geminid:
I’ve been tracking that for a while; there have been a long series of VA Republicans who drop out with the obvious intent that they can be the savoir when the GOP gets over being crazy. The first one I noticed was local rep Tom Davis, who retired in 2008 rather than lose reelection.
They think it’s just a temporary fever, and they just need to wait, not do anything. I hope they’re right this time, but they never have been so far.
karen marie
@leeleeFL: For doing something that should be bottom-line? Yeah, no.
@Jeffro: You seem to forget who they are and have been for the last 50 years.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
You said it, I don’t believe it, that settles it. ;^)
Seriously, maybe you can get a Romney or Cheney to switch parties, but if you did, it’s hard for me to come up with a reason for any current GOP voters to follow them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
In Cal there was a period that the GOP were just playing obstructionist to the Dems until they collapsed into it’s deep red core. The Cal example says sooner or latter the moderate conservative will give up on on the Republicans if they don’t do anything positive.
lowtechcyclist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hell, the Dems ran away from Obama in 2010, which was one reason (though far from the only) why that midterm was the disaster it was.
Redshift
@Karen:
I doubt Cheney has any beliefs at all other than that she wants to stay in power. Romney even more so.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: I’m listening to Jonathan Cohn’s book on Obamacare– The Ten Year War— and I recommend it. One of the points he makes is that Romney didn’t reform health care insurance in MA because of humanitarian instincts, he thought that the uninsured were moochers. That Maker/Taker, 47% rhetoric was the real Willard.
He flip-flopped on abortion because he, like I suspect most elected Rs, doesn’t really give a shit one way or the other.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Nope. It is a coalition government formed without BJP. Dodged a bullet there!
jsrtheta
@mvr: The Colorado stickers have been around for decades.
That they are rare on the ground just means the natives got outnumbered a long time ago.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@karen marie:
Doesn’t change the fact that you were fucking rude to Jeffro
Gvg
@lowtechcyclist: if any of them, elected or voters, actually think I have left the party, it will free up their thinking. The longer they are on the outside not hanging around with the extremists and keeping up with all the latest insider mythology, the more free their thinking will be. At that point, they become more random. 2 or more years not being marinated in nuts can make a big difference. It will work best if most of ones family make the break about the same time.
For a lot of them, it would help if they switched churches. But leaving a congregational due to not liking the theological leanings of a minister is pretty common. Usually I hear of people getting more extreme, but it can work the other way too.
Geminid
@Redshift: Some Republicans drop out and stay out. After Eric Cantor lost to Dace Brat in the 7th Congressional District in 2014, Scott Rigel (VA-2) and Robert Hurt (VA-5) both retired. Rigell was in his 50s, Hurt was in his 40s, and both had only been in office since 2010. They never gave much of a reason, but they are both wealthy businessman, and they probably thought kissing a lot of tea party ass wasn’t worth a political carreer.
But I’m talking about politicians like State Senators Jill Vogel (Culpepper) and Bill Stanley (Franklin County). Both passed on the 5th District seat that became open when Tom Garrett abruptly announced retirement. Vogel in particular would have been a natural choice were the Chamber of Commerce types still calling the shots. But the 5th is tea party and bible thumper territory now. Once those radicals lose that seat, and help lose a couple more statewide races, some may lose their interest in politics, and some may come around to the Chamber of Commerce view of electoral politics. At least that’s what the Vogels and the Stanleys in the party hope.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Still ended up with a good result, which is not unusual in politics.
Sounds like an interesting book. Another for my reading list.
Fair Economist
@Redshift: If Cheney were *just* about being in power, she’d kowtow to the Trumpies. Most likely she recognizes that fascist regimes are nasty for everybody, even those in power. If she were genuinely a supporter of democracy, she’d do more against voter suppression.
germy
This.
It’s the tone the reasonable Republicans don’t like. They don’t like the quiet parts out loud and the isolationism (although that last part turns out to be bullshit. Trump wanted to carpet bomb the Middle East).
Geminid
@Geminid: Another example of the course Virginia estabish.ent Republicans take these days is Kirk Cox, candidate for Governor. A yes on Medicaid expansion, and a former Speaker of the House of Delegates, Cox is the most moderate of the four major candidates for Governor. He’s not making his campaign about ideology or pushing back on the trumpers. Its more about anodyne platitudes and his experience, and his support from George Allen and other past and current officeholders.
mvr
@OzarkHillbilly:
@OzarkHillbilly:
If I can figure out where to post such an ask. Have fun on your trip out there! I’ve kind of enjoyed traveling Highway 20 across the top of the state in the past. Was just on the Nebraska side of the border on that Highway and then South to Scottsbluff this weekend.
FWIW, I wasn’t so much questioning the existence of “Native” stickers in WY as their ubiquity relative to other states. But my memory might also just be off. I’ll be traveling throughout the state in June so I’ll get some sense of the matter for myself – now with a heightened sensitivity to specifically the WY variant of such stickers.
MCA1
@PaulWartenberg: I think this is right, sadly. Kinzinger, Cheney and others have calculated that rejection is coming soon, and that they can be the Phoenix. These folks are looking to take advantage after a midterm drubbing (especially in the Senate) or a 2024 presidential landslide loss by the GOP, but I think we’re at least 6-8 years away from this current iteration of the Republican Party ending. The structural advantages the GOP has, either baked in by the Constitution (electoral college, Senate composition) or engineered to their advantage (gerrymandering, filibuster, vote suppression), are closer to ensuring longterm minority rule than they are to bringing about the widespread electoral humiliation needed for the few responsible, policy-minded, patriotic Republican elected officials left to demand the reins of power be handed back to them.
There’s also the additional complicating factor of the rightwing media ecosystem, which has successfully created a competing reality in which millions have an unshakable faith. That’s why these “brave” few who simply acknowledge reality and stand up for the integrity of democratic principles in the face of the big lie are getting shunned in the first place – not just admonished and given crappy committee positions, but primaried and drubbed out of the cult.
Martin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Also worth noting that the GOP core hasn’t pivoted in any way. It’s not like they realized their error and brought the party to a place where it has electoral relevancy. McCarthy and Nunes are the CA GOP brain trust. They’ve been in the weeds for 11 years now (the 2010 election is what fully wrecked them) and I see no evidence they are finding relevance.
mvr
@Bex:
Cool!
Boom & bust state gets you population ebb and flow. The legislature just approved a million dollars of the state budget to sue other states over coal. While they are in crisis money-wise since they don’t have an income tax and rely on resource extraction for the state budget.
mvr
@jsrtheta:
Those I see more often. (With caveats about my memory noted.)
catclub
“Don’t Californicate Oregon was early 90’s? or earlier?
J R in WV
@Fair Economist:
If Cheney were actually a defender of Democracy, we would be living in a very different universe, where grass is purple, and cows produce ice cream, and the weather is always good, except for the gentle showers around 2 am every other night.
And we all have heavy-duty umbrellas because the pigs fly!! If you’ve seen the commercial with the piglets flying, they are SO CUTE!!! Well done CGI ~!!~
Brachiator
@germy:
Trump wanted to carpet bomb the Middle East
I’m not too sure about this. Trump loved being in charge of the military. He liked the idea of having big, powerful weapons and shit. And he loved having mighty men, generals, who called him sir. Real childish shit.
But he did not have the taste for war that other political leaders have.And I am not giving him any credit her for sensitivity. He seemed to be pro-military, but thought that men and women who risked their lives in war were suckers. And Trump was also a self-centered coward. I think he feared criticism if a war ever went wrong or had significant amounts of casualties.
John Bolton thought that he could lead Trump into war, but got fed up with Trump’s reticence.
catclub
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
It may be spreading to other red seats in blue states, but all the anti-voter laws the GQP is pushing are NOT based on that attitude.
Martin
Maybe. It’s equally plausible that they see rejection is coming and there’s no recovering from it. That’s not a fun place to be if you are in that part of the minority. Consider that the last GOP president wasn’t pulled from the ranks – was a celebrity. The last CA GOP governor was the same – a non politician celebrity. The best shot for the next CA GOP governor is the same – Caitlyn Jenner. This is going to be a growing pattern for them. Why spend your time sitting on committees where the only thing you can do is grandstand for Fox News and vote no on everything, only to have Scott Baio swoop in and take the high profile spot because he once got Trump laid?
catclub
I think JRubin is rationally listing things that Liz Cheney COULD do, but has no belief that she would be successful within the GOP doing them. Liz Cheney COULD announce she is running for prez in 2024. She will get zero money and zero GOP votes if she does.
Martin
@mvr: The Colorado ‘native’ sticker started selling in ’79. It was very common by ’83 when my dad moved to Denver. Just to help narrow things down. I spent a fair bit of time in Wyoming and in Jackson in the mid-80s and don’t recall ever seeing a Wyoming one, so my guess is that they showed up late 80s at the earliest.
Ken
I’m sure this is just performance art, but what would be the goal of the suit? Other states will be required to buy more coal? Or pass laws requiring utilities to build more coal-fired power plants?
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
War is the one thing that is laid at the feet of the PRESIDENT. The PRESIDENT is held responsible for war.
And, if there’s one thing that Dolt45 ran away from – it was PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
He couldn’t blame anyone else for war.
Martin
@Karen: It’s not a donut hole. The GOP is now a fascist party. There is no conservative party. The folks like Cheney and Romney and JRubin all see that. They have no idea what to do about it. So long as the NYT editors continue to call and treat the GOP as the conservative party, they have no play.
Ruckus
Political parties rarely fail quietly or extremely fast. This mess will be around for a while. But seemingly, the vast majority of the republican politicians are worse than useless, they are dangerous to the health of the country. And the people monetarily supporting them are the same, dangerous to the country. We are seeing this in several countries actually, conservatism has gone into the late stages of it’s normal path of destruction of reality, caused by its actual political ideals, which is all the power and all the money for the chosen few. And this is in direct opposition to the concept of our government and to most of the people of the world. It is racist in this country because of our history, and it is dangerous for our country because of what we supposedly believe, that all are created equally.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Redshift:
I disagree. She and Romney actually have principals and do believe in Democracy. Its just many of her and Romney’s beliefs are things that I find repugnant. They may be awful people, but they legitimately have a code.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@mvr: Ding ding ding…Native stickers were still an CO thing last time I was home a few years ago. But Liz’s new party should fit into one of the chutes at Cheyenne Frontier Days. Hope Jen Rubin likes the smell of manure.
James E Powell
The funniest part of JRubin’s column is when she refers to Lynne Cheney as an intellectual heavyweight.
They never surrender their cherished illusions.
mrmoshpotato
@James E Powell:
Let’s get ready to act like rich people’s taxes are too high, and the government isn’t supposed to help those in needed!
Kay
@James E Powell:
Rubin is my favorite never-Trumper though. She just briskly gets on with it. Makes an actual decision.
The men are all “oooh, what is going ON, what did I do, why did I do it”
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Mine too. And I love how she uses words as a scalpel to flay Rs and the R coddling media.
germy
At a fundraiser this week in Costa Mesa @RepSteel apologized to fellow Republicans and Donors for working with @RepKatiePorteron a bill condemning hate crimes against AAPI’s.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@germy:
wtf?
...now I try to be amused
@rikyrah:
I was going post that it’s curious that a man who recklessly risked other people’s money wouldn’t recklessly risk other people’s lives in a war, but you explained why. Other people’s lives don’t matter to Trump, but he would be risking his own reputation.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@mvr: This is exactly why my father (born and bred in Thermopolis) is joining me in Virginia. To paraphase him, he doesn’t want to live in a place that insists on bankrupting itself.
germy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
This, while the media screams “Where’s the bipartisanship??” every day at Biden.
Geminid
@Bluegirlfromwyo: I don’t believe Liz Cheney will start a new party, and she is certainly not going to become a Democrat. I think she will stay a Republican and fight it out with the trumpists in next year’s Wyoming Congressional primary. And I wouldn’t bet on her losing. Cheney might be hardpressed if it is a two-person race, but it probably won’t be. There will certainly be more than one ambitious challenger hoping to ride the trump wave, such as it is.
It will be quite a fight. Some on-the-ground reporting would be valuable, and I hope you will do some.
Geminid
@Bluegirlfromwyo: Well, now I see that you are now a fellow Virginian, and will not be reporting on the ground from your former state. I hope Virginia will be a good place for your Dad.
Barry
@Fair Economist:
“If Cheney were *just* about being in power, she’d kowtow to the Trumpies. Most likely she recognizes that fascist regimes are nasty for everybody, even those in power. If she were genuinely a supporter of democracy, she’d do more against voter suppression.”
It’s a huge mystery. If she’s her father’s daughter, she cares nothing for Republican alleged ideals, just the one real one – money & power.
Why isn’t she getting out in front of the crowd?
cmorenc
Who in Hell among us would have guessed two years ago that we would have a substantial Liz Cheney Admiration Society here at Balloon Juice instead of regarding her as an obnoxiously disgusting RW spawn of the Devil? OK, maybe more in the sense of “a lesser enemy of our greater enemies is sorta, kinda our friend even though not really” sort of quasi-Admiration society, but even so whoda thunk it?
James E Powell
@Kay:
I go back and forth between her and Tom Nichols, but I lean Rubin because she’s not constantly dissing Led Zeppelin.
mvr
@catclub:
When I moved to Oregon in 1978 there was a lot of anti-California sentiment. I believe that was one of the phrases used to express it.
mvr
@Ken:
Allegedly for blocking exports.
AP: Wyoming backs coal with $1.2M threat to sue other states
mvr
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
Thanks for making me feel like my memory isn’t completely shot!
Geminid
@Barry: It may not be so mysterious. Cheney might just have some pride. That may be hard to believe for some of those who despise her. But I work on the assumption that even though Cheney is a Republican politician, she is still a human being with human impulses besides ambition.
Another Scott
@PaulWartenberg: I think you’re mostly right about the GQP.
But it’s not hopeless for the rest of us.
When things are closely divided, it only takes a few people to make a difference. We’re getting sensible people back in positions of authority, and they will have a positive impact.
None of the insurrection trials have started yet, yet all the TFG flags disappeared around my area in NoVA on 1/7. Garland is going to make sure people are prosecuted. The House and Senate will have their investigations, whether the GQP likes it or not. The Solicitor General isn’t a kook who will let WASP religious arguments decide how to argue cases at the SCOTUS. Biden is appointing former public defenders, etc., to the courts (or rumored to be).
Things will mostly only get worse for the GQP – that’s why they’re fighting so hard to stay in power now.
It’s not easy, there isn’t going to be some finish line or time when the clock runs out and everything will be different and better. But we will get through this and the tide will turn – it always does.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@karen marie:
Then you must absolutely loath the look of most of the Republican base. Their gullibility may destroy the USA. (And in the fullness of time and catastrophic global heating, kill hundreds of millions (or even a few billions) averaged over our possible futures.)
Morzer
@Barry: Strangely enough, Liz Cheney is LESS liberal than her father in at least one area: gay rights.
Morzer
@mvr: How many divisions does Wyoming Big Coal have?
mvr
@Morzer: They’ve got the State legislature apparently.