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You are here: Home / Elections / 2022 Elections / Late Night Open Thread: Liz Cheney *Will* Have Her Revenge… As A *Republican*

Late Night Open Thread: Liz Cheney *Will* Have Her Revenge… As A *Republican*

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The primaries are mostly over, President Biden and Vice-President Harris are doing their jobs admirably, so the Media Village Idiots are desperate for some new shiny talking point they can use to fill column inches without putting their tiny brains into gear. This nonsense had already been proposed right after the Wyoming primary, by a pundit (Bruni) with a far bigger platform:

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. I personally doubt that Cheney intends to run for President in 2024 — if there’s one thing she learned from her old man, it’s the wisdom of the old joke: A young bull said to his companion, ‘Let’s run up the hill and screw some of them cows.’ The old bull replied: ‘Let’s walk up the hill and screw all of them cows.’

The 2024 GOP primaries are going to put the sh*t in sh*tshow, and there will be (hopefully only career) casualties. That means there’s plenty of opportunities for non-candidates with established reputations to improve their standings with targeted attacks backed by high-dollar donors. I’ll be happy when I can go back to heartily despising her whole family, but in the interim, I’m rooting for this apex predator to wreak havoc in her specialized ecosystem.


But then again… Mark McKinnon, who actually knows Liz Cheney:

… The path Cheney will ultimately take is not yet entirely clear, but we can see where it’s heading. First, she’ll continue the work of the January 6 committee to its conclusion, whenever and wherever that leads. Second, she told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday that she intends to campaign against election deniers, including her own GOP colleagues. And third, she has not ruled out running for president in 2024. Which, in national political parlance most likely means: Yep, I’m going for it.

Running for president does not always mean that a politician’s goal is actually being elected president. Sometimes it is just the best platform for getting a message out—or settling a score with a competitor. In this case, it would mean both. Yes, she would continue to sound the alarm about current threats to democracy. But her endgame would be clear: denying someone else the Republican presidential nomination…

I worked with Cheney during the George W. Bush–Dick Cheney reelection campaign in 2004, where I served as chief media strategist. As I have previously written for the Hive, she worked long hours, despite five kids at home. She was clear-eyed and mission-driven. It was never about her; she never lorded her name over anyone or suggested any hint of entitlement—and there wasn’t a person on the campaign who did not have the utmost respect for her. If she runs for president, she won’t run to tilt at windmills. She’ll run to knock the wind out of Trump’s sails. And blow him down with the truth…

(Then again, maybe McKinnon is just hoping / angling for another well-compensated post in a new Cheney campaign?)

Just as well, given the standards of GOP ‘help’:

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Dear god, no.  Just no to the idea of a Republican as VP to a Democratic president.

    I guess there’s nothing else going on so they want to speculate about shit like this???

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    @WaterGirl: its because they always saddle successful Dems with this shit… see they replace the highly effective woman of color with another GOP white person….

    you’ll notice at no time whatsoever, that no matter how fucked up the GOP is and is performing, they never speculate that they should just grab a slightly sympathetic Dem candidate to “rescue them”.

     

    Never

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    she intends to campaign against election deniers, including her own GOP colleagues.

    this is where she’ll have an effect, if she has any. I’m trying to think of states or districts where she could make a difference in a tight race. I don’t think Kelly needs her? Nevada? dare I dream of Florida?

    if, in ’24, she goes after trump like Perot went after Poppy Bush or… other candidates have done in other races, that too could be interesting.

  5. 5.

    cain

    @piratedan:

     
    Bipartisan is only important when it is a Dem in charge. These folks are always interested in shoving a republican into every scene if they can.

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    @piratedan:

    you’ll notice at no time whatsoever, that no matter how fucked up the GOP is and is performing, they never speculate that they should just grab a slightly sympathetic Dem candidate to “rescue them”.

    True dat…

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    It was never about her; she never lorded her name over anyone or suggested any hint of entitlement—and there wasn’t a person on the campaign who did not have the utmost respect for her.

    I’m not a big fan of Mark McKinnon but that’s a great subtweet, as the kids call it, of Megan McCain

  8. 8.

    Suzanne

    Just like Joe Manchin doesn’t want to be a Republican because he’s a Democrat, Liz Cheney doesn’t want to be a Democrat because she’s a Republican, this shit isn’t hard

    Eh, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad take. Arlen Specter switched parties, Jeffords left the GOP. And for much less than this. I could see Cheney doing the same. If you’re ambitious, you look to carve out your spot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cheney thinks there’s a constituency out there that will admire her for this. Maybe the same types of dopes who really liked Tulsi Gabbard.

  10. 10.

    James E Powell

    @WaterGirl:

    The political media just hate the idea of Democrats governing without Republicans. They have been this way since Reagan.

    I don’t mind people praising Cheney; she did the right thing. But that doesn’t make her better or more admirable than the Democrats who have been standing up to Trump & Republicans’ attacks on democracy for all the years when Cheney was Trump’s loyal supporter

    ETA – And we already have a VP of whom we are quite fond & proud.

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Some writer at WaPo is trying to stir up trouble between the Obamas (who are visiting the WH tomorrow) and Biden. “Tensions just below the surface.” “Lingering resentments.” That kind of crap. It’s utterly disgusting.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    How come there are never any hot takes for why Trump will chose Bernie Sanders as his running mate? This river only seems to flow one way.

  13. 13.

    RaflW

    Yeah. It’s not the least bit White Supremacy Culture to propose that Democrat Kamala Harris, the sitting vie president and 2020 running mate of Democrat Joe Biden just step aside for the good of the country so that blonde white Republican arch conservative (and seat-loser) Liz Cheney (daughter of noted centrist war hawk ghoul Dick Cheney) can get on a “unity” ticket with Joe.

    Lordy. 🤮

  17. 17.

    RaflW

    @cain: Oh my g-d. I clicked thru to the Inquirer. His penultimate paragraph. Gaaah.

    And if you can’t stomach the idea of Harris getting dumped, here’s another idea: Biden steps down, the Democrats nominate Harris for president, and she makes Cheney her running mate. That would be fine by me. But it’s not fine to carry on as if these were normal times when we know they’re not.

    I hope his history students at Penn are spared this claptrap.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Hahaha and also ROFLMAO at this news!

    Just saw that TFG and JD Vance are holding a political rally in Youngstown, OH.

    On Saturday, September 17.

    At 7:00 pm.

    The EXACT start time of the The Ohio State football game!! LOL and hahaha!! Do these guys and their “only-the-best” staffers know anything about Ohio??

    I’m going to sleep well tonight.

  20. 20.

    ian

    What is so astronomically dumb about these takes is that they do not account for the job of the Vice President (president and tie-breaker of the senate) but only the role of the Vice President

    No one had any idea the Senate was going to end up at 50-50 back when the VP selection was underway in 2020.  We have no real idea what the senate will look like in 2025.  Selecting someone who cannot be removed except by impeachment who could thwart your political parties goals seems a real self own.  Imagine Cheney or equivalent having a veto over all the 50-50 things passed in the past two years.

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    @ian: The country should have learned in 1865 that “balancing the ticket” above all other considerations can work out really badly.

    Even if you accept the premise that the Democrats will need to do something radical to their ticket to win in 2024 (which I absolutely DO NOT ACCEPT), proposing Cheney is just lazy and stupid. Why is it so hard for people to admire something someone is doing without the need to say they “should be President” or something similar? It’s ok to admire Cheney’s decision to stick to the bare principles of “yes, we are a democracy” and her way of speaking clearly. That doesn’t mean we are all obligated to give her anything, especially power.

    Why on earth is that a “bad take”?

  22. 22.

    livewyre

    @Martin: Yup, I only ever see it flow to the right for some reason.  There’s a reason words like these, that always coincidentally happen to undermine law and democracy, are an industry to themselves. I’m beyond weary of giving the benefit of the doubt to insulated but putatively well-meaning opinion-havers.

  24. 24.

    steve g

    I have been okay with a little Liz Cheney in my news ‘n’ blogs ‘n’ twitter browsing, so at first I thought this article would be okay too. It started out fine, then after a while it suddenly went “whoop, that’s too much Liz Cheney”, and I found myself not wanting to read any more about Liz Cheney for a while.

  25. 25.

    Joe Falco

    Maybe in the 2024 Republican primary, Liz would be able to do to Trump what the few Republicans who ran against him for the (R) nomination in 2020 weren’t allowed to: compete. I remember during that election cycle the national party all but shut out any would-be king slayers from being able to participate in the primary. 2024 will be different, but Republican leaders have shown themselves that they’re willing to shut out candidates. Liz could try to run for president and find herself on the other side of the GOP gated community.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eclare:

    Probably. Responded upstairs, at greater length and with impeccable almost-3:00 am coherence, why I think that doesn’t really matter.

  27. 27.

    N M

    @Suzanne: a certain kind of Dem was… “attracted” … to Tulsi.  I don’t think they will have the same “feelings” for Liz, even if she is blonde.

  28. 28.

    206inKY

    I don’t care that I disagree with her on everything. She was just a number on all that stuff. Where it really counts, Liz Cheney is a hero of our times and will be remembered as such long after we are all dead.

    There are lots of weird, fucked-up people throughout history who helped save the world. Liz Cheney has already earned her place in this motley crew of people with actual backbones.

  29. 29.

    206inKY

    Here’s a good test. In 1998, did you see the Lewinsky scandal as a witch hunt? Did you think Republicans should stay the hell out of Clinton’s bedroom? Did you avert your eyes from the coercive context of his relationship with Lewinsky and his shitty, disrespectful treatment of her afterwards?

    If you answered yes to any of this, congratulations, you’re an asshole. Lewinsky says she was living in a “house of gaslight,” and you helped build it.

    Liz Cheney is doing what you should have done in 1998, if only you had the backbone.

  32. 32.

    Brit in Chicago

    Does anyone actually believe that Cheney will be the Dem VP candidate? If so, I’ll bet them a lot of real money against it. I might even offer odds to make the deal better for them. Any takers?   —No, I thought not. They’re just saying it.

  33. 33.

    Gvg

    @206inKY: boy are you an idiot.

    it WAS a witch hunt, and they settled for it after all their wasted efforts to catch him doing something actually illegal failed. I didn’t believe the affair at first because the republicans had been proven to be liars about Bill so many times before, but I accepted the scientific test proof. He was wrong no doubt but not impeachment remove from office and nullify an election wrong for something many of them members of Congress voting against him were also guilty of wrong.

    She was also guilty and an adult who chose to have an affair with a married man. Her mother and Aunt egged her on, encouraged her to think she could get him to marry her, divorce Hillary. This came out at the time. There were interviews with the family. So she wasn’t brought up to be wise and paid for that. I was shocked by the interview with the aunt, I hadn’t realized I guess how lucky I was to have ordinary smart parents if that makes any sense. I knew you don’t get any happiness messing around with a cheater.

    She also got betrayed by someone she thought was a friend but was actually working for the republicans to bring down Clinton.

    They settled for a cheating scandal when Bill wasn’t an actual crook, but it wasn’t enough, the public didn’t care enough and Congress knew that and didn’t remove him from office AND elected more democrats next election.

    There was a power imbalance but neither Clinton hurt Lewinsky. The republicans revealing her affair set a lot of hungry publicity newsmen and such after her and she had no power to push them away. The Clintons had to face that all and stay. They got it worse but also had power.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @Brit in Chicago: I think the people raising the prospect of Cheney as VP candidate don’t really believe in it. They’re either looking for clicks, trying to stir up shit between Democrats, or both.

  37. 37.

    The Truffle

    We have a smart, charismatic, capable VP and they want to replace her with a Cheney?

    No. No. More. Cheney VPs. NO.

  38. 38.

    tam1MI

    @Gvg: There was a power imbalance but neither Clinton hurt Lewinsky

    That may be true of Hillary, but several Clinton staffers both then and now confirm that Bill was actively involved in the campaign to smear Monica Lewinsky as a crazy stalker.

  39. 39.

    J R in WV

    @tam1MI:

    As good as he was at being President (and he was good at it!), Bill Clinton had and has a terrible hole where respect for women should have lived in his conscience. It’s a shame Hillary fell in love with such a damaged person. She is twice the person Bill is.

    He cannot function around women regardless of whether sex is on the table at all. Look at the meeting on the tarmac with the female AG, stupid and wrong. His brain just goes off line when a woman is involved in any way.

  40. 40.

    Chris Johnson

    If Russia can have the list of American spies to roll up our whole operation, is there a way WE can have the list of Russian trolls and all the usernames literally carpeting the Internet, which are actually hardworking dudes in St. Petersburg with extensive notes as to all the stuff they’re supposed to know in their ‘personas’ and further notes as to which talking points are expected to work on which communities?

    Asking for no particular reason :D

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