Sunday, January 16, 2022

Liz Cheney’s True Constituents

Someone who can raise hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars with a few phone calls will harbor loyalty to D.C. interests, not to Wyoming voters.


Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) may officially represent the “Cowboy State,” but she is more accurately described as the only voting member on behalf of the Washington DC establishment. 

Cheney has declared that Donald J. Trump tried to overthrow the U.S. government and, under provisions of the 14th Amendment, he must be banned from ever running for public office again. Heck, maybe he should be prosecuted for sedition! She knows all this because she was there in the House chambers on January 6, 2021. You weren’t, so you don’t know. In her elite experience of life inside the Imperial City her accusation equals guilt. Period, end of discussion. 

Madam Attorney Cheney lectures her actual constituents in Wyoming that “it’s the Constitution.” You see, we are all ignorant. President Trump had no right to claim the election was stolen (it was, and he did). He had no right on January 6 of last year to refer a number of disputed state election results to their respective legislatures (he absolutely did).

When the riot occurred, this woman, who for years so energetically encouraged U.S. intervention in overseas conflicts, experienced what was probably the first flicker of fear she’s felt in her entire sheltered life. Eager to send tens of thousands of soldiers into combat, where all experience real fear and some die, her personal exposure to potential violence sure did not sit well with her. How much sympathy did she express for the victims of hundreds of riots throughout the country during 2020? None. She brays that she is the defender of the People’s House, but as for your house, your family’s safety, your business, she could not care less. 

From election day 2020 through the Biden inauguration in January, 2021, Cheney told us courts heard and dismissed election fraud claims. She knows this is false. Numerous courts were presented with claims, and all were turned down for procedural reasons—generally “lack of standing.” No court heard evidence (there are reams of it from numerous states). It’s worse today: 14 months later, to my knowledge, not a single federal court has yet reviewed a single piece of evidence. Strikeout, Liz.

She tells us she “voted her conscience” to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection” on January 13, seven days before the end of his term. The Constitution she claims to respect sets a due process expectation and standard for any citizen. A House colleague of hers, a friend of mine who sits on the Judiciary committee, confirmed to me that the entire impeachment process took under 7 hours, from the first hearing until the impeachment vote. 7 hours! President Trump had no opportunity to present a defense. For Cheney, once again, the accusation is the conviction, and evidence be damned. Strikeout, Liz. 

Now Cheney sits on Pelosi’s select committee to investigate January 6. Investigation is a deliberate process of pursuing facts. But she and her colleagues will see to it that the committee finds President Trump guilty of “insurrection.” Did I miss the exchanges of gunfire? The artillery barrages of the rebels hitting the Capitol? The takeover of radio and TV stations in DC? Does she care that, among all the accused rioters, not a single firearm was found? No she doesn’t. Strikeout, Liz. 

She accepted an appointment by the House Democratic leadership as vice-chair of the committee. The committee has no Republican appointed representation, meaning it has no authority under the rules of the House to proceed with its work, much less issue subpoenas. Her sense of fair process, including the right of persons under investigation to have advocates among the ranks of the committee, simply does not exist

She applauded when Pelosi expelled Representatives Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) as Republican members of the committee. She remained on the committee even when Republican  leadership, realizing the committee’s mission is not an objective inquiry but an inquisition, rightly withdrew all Republican nominations. This violates House rules; nothing of the sort has ever happened in U.S. history. Strikeout, Liz. 

Hundreds of January 6 protestors have been languishing in jail for months, many in conditions befitting Soviet gulags: 23 hours/day locked down in their cells; denial of attorney and family visits; denial of phone calls; retribution for getting these conditions into the public eye. Some are lacking medical care and good nutrition, and even suffering beatings. Most have families, none have criminal records. Biden officials call them “domestic terrorists”, but not a one has been charged with insurrection. Does Cheney ask about their treatment? No. Let them rot. Strikeout Liz. 

Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the committee supported a radical secessionist group responsible in the late 1960s for cop shootings and at least one officer murder. The group was found storing arms and explosives. He has never renounced this association. Cheney has never mentioned it, objected to it, or criticized him. He’s her valued ally because he hates Trump too. Strikeout, Liz 

The committee’s tactics are appalling, dishonest, and vicious. Demanding documents from anyone remotely associated with President Trump (under threat of criminal indictments), it vacuums up private records of hundreds of innocent people. She and her Democratic colleagues know the man, so they “will find the crime.” Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a committee member, was caught altering text messages of Representative Jordan—a felony offense in any jurisdiction other than the sewer that Congress has become. While busy calling January 6 protestors terrorists, Pelosi refuses to release her communication records related to the security arragements for the Capitol for that day. Cheney says nothing. Strikeout, Liz.

When Cheney appeared on the Wyoming scene in 2014, she passed out the book Cowboy Ethics at her early fundraising events. My family still has a copy on our living room table. We assumed the book meant she lived by its principles, the old “Code of the West” that demands strict integrity in one’s life, never betraying trust, and fair play. Now we know the book was a prop for her political theater. She mouthed its principles to get elected, but in fact she lives by the opposite code of corrupt Washington. 

For five years, she deceived us and every Wyoming Republican, including her opponent Harriet Hageman. We all should have understood that someone who can raise hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars with a few phone calls would harbor loyalty to D.C. interests, not to Wyoming voters. 

Research her resume—it couldn’t be more clear that she advanced through D.C. circles using her Daddy’s contacts. Now we find that she accepts funds from the Lincoln Project, a false-front “Republican” organization which has worked for years to undermine the Trump agenda. Stooping even lower, it turns out that our “warrior for the Constitution” accepted an award from a Chinese Communist-affiliated group

Washington is not just “the swamp.” It is a putrid cesspool. Dishonor and dishonesty permeate this committee. Dishonor cloaks Liz Cheney. She was elected to bat for us, her constituents. Turns out she bats for the opposite team. She is the worst of Washington. Her dishonorable conduct demands her removal from office, public shaming, and her humiliating defeat.