Hard using Lynn Cheney as a positive, but the men in this thread are probably all among the 10 worst members of Congress https://t.co/hXQoLsvbZ8
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 21, 2020
House conservatives piled on Liz Cheney during a heated GOP conference meeting today, attacking her for criticizing Trump, supporting Fauci and backing Massie's primary opponent.
the dispatch:https://t.co/tvbCg34aRo
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) July 21, 2020
I would not willingly shake Liz Cheney’s hand (and, if forced to do so, I would count my fingers afterwards) but I have full respect for her political instincts, as honed at her daddy’s biomechanical knee. The old man skittered away unscathed from a CREEP position during Watergate, used his position as head of Dubya’s ‘search committee’ to insert himself into the White House as regent, and is apparently as immune to normal human mortality as he is to every norm of human civility. If his dear daughter is willing to slap the FreeDumb Caucus around like this, I am happy to assume that the FreeDumb Caucus is not long for this world. Per Politico:
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus tore into Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during a heated GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, lobbing attacks at her for breaking with President Donald Trump, supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci and backing a primary opponent to one of their colleagues.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Freedom Caucus co-founder and one of Trump’s top allies, called out Cheney, the GOP conference chair, for all the times she has opposed Trump and began ticking off some recent high-profile examples, according to two sources in the room. While Jordan praised her defense of Trump during impeachment, he also said Cheney’s recent rebukes of Trump — which have focused on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, his Twitter rhetoric, and his foreign policy — were not helpful.
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the Freedom Caucus, even accused Cheney of undermining the GOP’s ability to win back the House and said that if someone has a problem with Trump, they should keep it to themselves.
Cheney responded to the criticism by saying she disagrees with Jordan’s assessment and making clear her views are her own.
To Jordan, whose arch-conservative Freedom Caucus was a constant pain for GOP leadership when the party was in the majority, Cheney said: “I look forward to hearing your comments about being a team player when we’re back in the majority,” according to two sources in the room.
After the meeting, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida — who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus but is closely aligned with the conservative crew — tweeted that Cheney should step down from her position as the No. 3 House Republican. He also discussed at length his issues with Cheney in the most recent episode of his podcast, which posted Tuesday afternoon…
The president, however, has been silent about Cheney’s public criticism, and has even heaped praise on her at White House events.
Cheney — a staunch conservative who quickly climbed the leadership ranks and has wide support in the House GOP conference — votes with Trump 97 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. She also is one of the Trump campaign’s fundraising co-captains and strongly defended him during the impeachment battle…
The pile-on came during the House GOP’s first in-person meeting in months, with large in-person gatherings in the Capitol mostly replaced by conference calls during the pandemic. And after Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) tested positive for coronavirus last week, leadership stepped up its safety precautions for Tuesday’s meeting by requiring masks and temperature checks at the door.
The meeting also comes as there is growing concern in the GOP about Trump’s slumping poll numbers and his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. Cheney has been one of the Republicans who has been willing to publicly call out Trump — a risky move in today’s GOP, but one that could position herself for a post-Trump world — and has managed to avoid the kind of scathing retort that Trump has doled out to others in the party…
A lot of these stories frame the anti-Liz Cheney move as "conservatives vs Cheney."
"Trump Loyalists vs Cheney" makes more sense b/c Gaetz/Freedom Caucus aren't more conservative than Cheney — which they proved by putting Trump loyalty above their long held positions.— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) July 21, 2020
West of the Rockies
Jordan looks like Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber: same arrogance and incandescent stupidity.
Fair Economist
Not sure if this is an example of sharp political instincts by Lynn Cheney or a case of the revolution eating her own children.
Also, “worse than Lynn Cheney” is just an example of the dictum “No matter how bad Republicans are, they can always get worse. And they will.”
NotMax
Slow motion Donner party.
dmsilev
The phrase ‘root for injuries’ inevitably comes to mind.
trollhattan
@NotMax: TBF, the Donner Party’s problem was being too slow.
dmsilev
@NotMax: According to Rush Limbaugh, the Donner Party was an example of American can-do problem solving that we today would do well to emulate.
NotMax
Worst episode of The Outer Limits.
:)
dww44
I hope that Liz Cheney comes out on top in her power struggle with the Freedom Caucus just as I support Doug Collins in his campaign against Kelly Loeffler for the Georgia Senate seat that she literally bought with a huge check to the state Republican party and is now passing herself off in her political ads as the biggest friend that the citizens of the state have ever had, including one about how she flew Covid victims from rural South Georgia to hospitals and treatments they would not be able to avail themselves of. She is such a fake. Collins is just a normal run of the mill far right wing Trumpie Republican.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Sounds more like a low-rent imitation Robert Ludlum novel.
NotMax
@dmsilev
“Wait a minute. Back up. Exactly what do you mean by ‘there’s no pig in this McRib?'”
:)
kindness
Meh. They could all get an uncureable plague and I’d be OK with it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I suspect Gaetz et al are who they are and won’t rise any higher. If they get bored with the House or see greener pastures, they’ll go away. Liz Cheney is probably the next Senator from WY, and Very Serious fixture on Meet The Press. I think that’s as far as she’ll go.
don’t forget 17 heart attacks, five DUIs and I think about half a century with Satan as a father-in-law
I finally got around to watching Vice, the Christian Bale as Cheney movie, and I would recommend it if you haven’t seen it.
HumboldtBlue
We have our music for the evening. Let us dance.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Long pork is a kind of pig, right?
Wyatt Salamanca
@dmsilev:
I’ve always thought of the Donner Party as a shining example of American can-do cannibalism.
As far as repulsive Liz Cheney vs other repulsive Republicans, they can all go fuck themselves.
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
“Come quick, honey. They’re playing our song.”
:)
Cameron
There’s only one reason Trump is quiet: she’s got the goods on him. How or what I don’t know. And the Freedumb Kawkus imbeciles don’t realize she’s got the whip hand.
Mike in NC
As always, rooting for injuries.
mrmoshpotato
And then wash your hands – repeatedly.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Since, well, I started paying attention to politics in 8th grade.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Politico via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Smart, Matt! That’s just what the GOP needs: Attack and demote the only woman in the GOP House Leadership. That’ll really help the GOP’s polling numbers with suburban women.
And remember to keep shooting yourself in the foot, Matt. You’re not a real man until you need more than two hands to count the bullet holes in your shoes.
BruceFromOhio
Smithers, have them all killed.
Lacuna Synechdoche
@NotMax:
I thought it was some sort of over-the-counter STD test.
patrick II
I am glad that Cheney found a line she would not cross — helping spread a deadly virus in support of a traitorous psychopath. Doesn’t say much for the rest of them though.
NotMax
@Lacuna Synechdoche
Charter member of the Pakled Caucus.
;)
James E Powell
@Cameron:
I’d bet it isn’t Liz who’s got the goods, but father. He has been an immoral & corrupt insider for decades.
Mai naem mobile
The Freedumb Cucks are the idiots who’ve watched FOX and listened to Rush, Glenn Beck and Mark Levin on the radio and actually believe the stuff. They don’t realize that’s just fake stuff you’re supposed to pretend you believe but you actually know it’s all a bunch of baloney used to suck in stupid people.
HumboldtBlue
I’m caramelizing onions, which means I’ll be here for the next hour, but damn, it’s nice to discover some music that just clicks.
Boogaloo Joe Jones
mrmoshpotato
@Wyatt Salamanca:
LMAO!
H.E.Wolf
Dana Houle (or Dana’s autocorrect) made an error in the tweet above.
Lynn [sic; it’s Lynne] Cheney is the 78-year-old wife of 79-year-old Dick Cheney.
Liz (Elizabeth Lynne) Cheney is their elder daughter, the congresswoman. Their younger daughter Mary is also a conservative, albeit one in a same-sex marriage.
BruceFromOhio
@NotMax: Gaia help every living being, it’s the Pakled wing of the Republican Party, on display for all to see.
And these things get elected and paid to represent.
We are done here.
Lacuna Synechdoche
@HumboldtBlue: Danke.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue:
Mmmmm
???
Benw
Jim is cool with rape and sexual assault. Matt is so dumb he thinks Jim is cool.
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
What, no onion cam?
;)
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: Excellent. Thank you.
Omnes Omnibus
@BruceFromOhio: Release the hounds.
Kent
Liz Cheney is a Bush-era Republican. The normal horrible type who likes to start wars, grift, lay waste to the environment, and dismantle the social safety net. But doesn’t believe in setting fire to the whole government just because they can like the so-called Freedom Caucus. They’d rather use government for their own ends.
In a way she is more dangerous because, like Bush, she and others like her know that the only future for the GOP is to drop the anti-immigrant racism and white existential scream that has become the MAGA Trump movement. Bush knew this intuitively from his time in Texas. The GOP almost went that direction but the so-called white working class base and old white suburban racist base was having none of it and we got Trump.
I spent over a decade living and working in Texas. Sometimes up to half the kids in my classes were Hispanic. All my daughter’s soccer teams that I coached were majority Hispanic as were many of their best friends so lots of Quinceanera parties and that kind of thing. Bush was absolutely right. The Hispanic population in a place like Texas is ripe for a conservative party message that isn’t racist and white supremacist. Your typical Texan Hispanic family drives a BIG Ford F150 or F250 with four kids piled into the extended cab. They live in an ordinary 1600 sf 3 br 3 ba home in the suburbs. And they likely go to some Evangelical or Catholic church. If they were white, 80% of them would be Republicans.
There will be a new GOP once they ditch the Trump crazy. And they will focus like a laser on the Hispanic vote and the Asian-American vote. Because it is their only remaining play. People like Liz Cheney know that.
Mary G
AL, that first paragraph is a work of art.
Frankensteinbeck
It astonishes me to remember that… yes. This was true. They drove Boehner and then Ryan nuts. They would not accept ‘yes’ for an answer. Since Boehner made up his even-more-insane version of the Hastert Rule and refused to pass anything with Democratic votes, the small Freedom Caucus had enough members to sink legislation. Even wildly conservative stuff wasn’t good enough for them. They were ‘but we SHOULD default on the debt!’ folks. They would not have had the power to blow their own noses if Boehner hadn’t been such a (completely unprecedented) partisan asshole, and they still hated him. That whole thing was insane.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
You wouldn’t get the full experience.
Can’t really broadcast the sulfuric acid or caramelizing smells through the series of tubes.
Omnes Omnibus
And this is why, while I am happy that the Lincoln Project and other Never Trumpers are hitting Trump hard and I will welcome their votes for Biden this November, I don’t trust the fuckers farther than I can throw them (and my right elbow is sort of sore from weightlifting).
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Have to pre-order the scratch ‘n’ sniff cards for that.
Kent
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep. It’s like forming an alliance with Stalin during WW2. You know even before you start that it’s not going to end well. But you still gotta do what you gotta do. Because Stalin isn’t the one setting western Europe on fire.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: And have an onion and knife on hand. ?
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Somewhere in a drawer I have an unused scratch ‘n’ sniff card from when Polyester was first being shown in theaters.
More than enough others in the audience scratched theirs at the appointed times, to give everyone present a hefty dose of each smell that never felt any need to touch mine.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Find it, put on some long pants, and give that card a scratch.
mrmoshpotato
Lewis Black’s RantCast
Listening to episode 2 – highly recommended
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Not Helpful is both the name of my next band and the words that will be carved on my tombstone.*
*Not that I’ll have a tomb, because what an absurd waste of arable land,** but you know what I mean.
**I have seen with my own eyes, and not merely read/heard as apocrypha, the tombstone of a legendary*** bon vivant that said “This One’s On Me.”
***To his family and friends. I was dating his grandson,**** years later.
****Who was a WASP asshole of the first water, but I repeat myself.
(not really a) Dr Thoth Evans
@NotMax:
I thought that was a Robert Ludlum novel.
sukabi
@NotMax: need up votes for that. ?
Ruckus
@Wyatt Salamanca:
NOOOOOO!
How do you think they reproduce? I mean who else would fuck them if not themselves?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
Let us not speak of this again.
Mary G
Just clicked on an ad to see if I qualify to emigrate to Canada. I don’t.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sounds fair. But he was encouraging them. Unknowingly I’m sure but still……
Brachiator
So, we know some of those who will stay with Trump to the end, no matter what he does or what harm he causes to the country.
@Ruckus
They can fuck themselves as much as they like. I just want them to stop fucking America.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
That’s how they make more republicans.
You don’t want that do you?
Yeah, I thought not
Also those that stay with him to the bitter end are, well there is no other way to say it, fucking insane. Jackets with wrap around sleeves and all. They want to harm everything but themselves and they aren’t real sure they shouldn’t be doing that. Unsalvageable they are.
Sloane Ranger
@Kent:
That may well be true but it has problems for them.
Firstly, after years of increasing anti Hispanic and anti Asian American rhetoric and actions, it will take years, possibly a generation, for a big enough mass of voters in these groups to trust them. They will want to see actions, not just words.
Secondly, any attempt to genuinely reach out to Hispanics and Asian Americans will lead to a backlash by the existing GOP racist base who will either support 3rd Party candidates or just sit out elections.
So, the danger for them is being out of power for a generation, despite all the money the billionaires throw at elections. This is the cul de sac they’ve driven themselves into. IMHO.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Sloane Ranger: Agree with both of those points, and:
Thirdly, young Hispanic- and Asian-Americans are Hispanic- and Asian-American, but they’re also young. They’re heading away from the non-racist aspects of Republicanism (to the extent there are any) just as fast as any other young Americans.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: I might, Madame has family there.
joel hanes
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Not Helpful is both the name of my next band and the words that will be carved on my tombstone.
Back in the golden age of blogging, there was a regular commenter on Sadly, No! whose nym was “Truculent and Unreliable”. Always loved that one.
low-tech cyclist
Totally off topic, but hey, it IS an open thread, and it’s 4am and my mind won’t shut up because I thought of something the House could actually DO about all those Federal cops being sent to Portland, Chicago, and wherever is next.
All these Federal cops from DHS and DOJ represent excess capacity that apparently isn’t urgently needed for their primary missions. The House could defund that excess capacity for FY 2021.
That wouldn’t make any immediate difference now, since FY21 doesn’t start until October 1. But perhaps the threat of budget cuts could be used as a lever to get the Feds out of the cities now. Congress used to play that sort of hardball with great frequency.
According to this CRS table, all of the FY21 appropriations bills have been voted out of committee, but haven’t been voted on by the House as a whole. Sounds to me like the DHS and DOJ funding bills should be sent back to committee for a bit of trimming.
And maybe the House should only fund those agencies through mid-November, with the implicit threat that if they don’t behave themselves between now and the election, cuts are still on the table for afterwards.
I’ll be calling my Congresscritter in the morning.
Aleta
Great news about “our great American experiment.”
WSJ: Covid-19 “not as lethal as Ebola.” Yay USA.
Oh wait. “The coronavirus is killing more people than the deadlier diseases, however, in part because it is more infectious. ” No, really? We should work on transmission then?
Aleta
@low-tech cyclist: good idea
mrmoshpotato
@Aleta:
Good news, everyone!
Burnspbesq
@NotMax:
With the whole country as collateral damage.
Burnspbesq
I LOVE this.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-22/philly-d-a-threatens-to-arrest-federal-agents?srnd=premium
low-tech cyclist
Can you imagine the media pearl-clutching if, during their Presidencies, any prominent Democrat had said that if anyone had a problem with Clinton or Obama, they should keep it to themselves?
Not to mention outright laughter. Democrats in or running for Congress felt free to put plenty of distance between them and either President. I remember how Alison Grimes, the Dem nominee for Senate in Kentucky six years ago, wouldn’t even admit to having voted for Obama. And her candidacy had the support of the Democratic Party.
The point is, this is an incident that clearly demonstrates the huge gap between the two parties in terms of the level of dissent each one tolerates. There is no equivalence between the two sides when, on the GOP side, supporting the President ‘only’ 97% of the time isn’t good enough; that remaining 3% makes you a person of dubious loyalty.
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue: Amen.
Falling Diphthong
@Kent: I feel like we’ve had more than 20 years of the Bush-esque Republicans saying “We need to get rid of immigration as an issue and grow our party with these new groups of immigrants” while the white-resentment base who put Republicans in office say “Nopety nope nope those people are the enemy, come to steal our daughters.”
Pre-Trump, someone observed that the Paul Ryans of the party got people in the tent with White Identity Politics, then tried to convert them to ending Social Security and Medicare. Only the first part had worked. Now they’re stuck with Trump’s id as the base, and Trump as the avatar, and it’s hard to triangulate themselves out.
Falling Diphthong
@Burnspbesq:
debbie
Any caucus led by a pedophile enabler is not a caucus worth joining. Cheney should avoid them like the plague.
Ken
Well of course not. Ebola was a problem under That Man. Why, we had two actual cases here in the US.
laura
Is there anyone anywhere that doesn’t believe that Liz Cheney is the type of leopard that would eat any face that stands in the way of Liz Cheney’s goal of being the first female Cheney president?
As for Gym Jordan – who Charlie Pierce refers to as that “jacketless nuisance,” a man who would stand by while a “doctor” openly and relentlessly sexually pestered or assaulted young student athletes year after year after year and do absolutely nothing to stop the abuse is exactly the guy who’s going to stand by the president as he dismantles, destroys and shakes down every jot and tittle of American governance and institutional norms.
Those freedom derps tried pulling her pig tails and not only did she not cry, she’s taking names. Rooting for injuries undeed.