Being labeled a “carpetbagger” isn’t the kiss of death in U.S. politics.

However, Liz Cheney is going to have deal with being called one as she runs for the U.S. Senate seat in Wyoming, a state where she has virtually no connection — other than the fact that her father once represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Cheney’s foe in the 2014 Republican primary will be three-term incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi. Cheney says it’s time for a “new generation of leaders” to set policy. Cheney is 46; Enzi is 69.

But back to the carpetbagger issue.

Former U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had the same issue when she ran for the Senate in New York. She’d never lived there. But she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, bought a home there. She acquainted herself with the New York political infrastructure, developed a huge fundraising base and won in a breeze in 2000. Clinton ended up becoming a first-rate lawmaker, winning high praise among from her colleagues — both Democratic and Republican.

Let’s go back a bit further. Robert F. Kennedy only had a slight connection to the Empire State when he decided to run for the Senate in 1964; RFK attended a boarding school there as a child. He also had been called a “carpetbagger” by his Republican foes, but brushed it off with the trademark Kennedy wit and charm. Kennedy also won in a walk that year and served for four years before his life ended so tragically at the hand of an assassin.

Liz Cheney has the family name in Wyoming. Her father, ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, is one of the most polarizing figures in politics today. Liz Cheney was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Washington, D.C., attended law school in Illinois. She does have a passing acquaintance with her new home state.

This question remains, however: Cheney is like many contemporary conservatives who cry out for “authenticity.” Will she be able to make the claim that she’s authentic while fending off claims of being a cheap carpetbagger?

Liz Cheney — a harsh critic of President Obama — is known to play rough, just like her dad. We’ll see in due course whether she can take it as well as she can dish it out.

I’m going to line up behind Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s description of the latest Rolling Stone magazine cover.

He calls it a “disgrace.”

I’m with you, Mr. Mayor.

Rolling Stone put the face of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing that terrorized the nation, not to mention the city where the event took place.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/17/poll-should-rolling-stone-have-put-tsarnaev-on-its-cover/

Yes, it’s a bizarre decision. The magazine usually features rock stars or other cultural icons. Tsarnaev, though, is a class by himself. He’s a suspected terrorist who’s alleged action killed three people and injured more than 100 others, some of them grievously.

Rolling Stone editors defend the cover, saying the magazine always has honored the principles of good journalism.

The Boston Marathon bombing cut deeply into the nation’s emotional psyche. Surely the magazine editors knew what the reaction would be when they plastered Tsarnaev’s face on the cover of the magazine, but they chose to do it anyway. My sense is that Rolling Stone is motivated more by provocation than solid journalism.

Rolling Stone editors wanted to provoke a visceral reaction and they have succeeded.

Several retailers, including some that do business in Amarillo, have said they won’t sell the magazine with Tsarnaev’s picture on the cover. I concur with that decision.

I’m wondering how the magazine could have told the story without the visible image. Here’s a thought: a few words of text across the top of the cover page that say something like: “Boston Marathan bombing suspect – from big man on campus to alleged terrorist. Turn to Page 10.”

Wouldn’t that have done the job?

I remember when Ronald Reagan invoked what he called the “11th Commandment,” which decreed that Republicans never should speak ill of other Republicans.

Some of today’s Republicans — self-professed devotees of the Gipper — are committing a form of political sacrilege. They’re targeting fellow Republicans with abandon.

The latest of them is one Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wants to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Wyoming against, that’s right, Sen. Mike Enzi, a Republican incumbent with a 92 percent rating from the American Conservative Union.

Seems that Enzi’s major “sin” has been his willingness to work with Democrats in the Senate. Cheney’s announcement of her candidacy declares she will never compromise. She’s going to stand by her principles, by golly, no matter what.

Enzi said he “thought we were friends” when describing his relationship with Cheney. Apparently not.

In another interesting twist to this budding campaign, Chris Mathews of MSNBC noted today that Liz Cheney has never actually lived in Wyoming. She went to high school in Washington, where she lived with her parents and younger sister. Cheney recently moved to resort community of Jackson Hole, in western Wyoming. But as Howard Fineman, also of MSNBC, noted, that is like “someone moving to the Hamptons and then claiming to know all about New York state.”

As for the 11th Commandment, Cheney is just the latest GOP hopeful to throw President Reagan’s mandate into the dumper. Utah GOP Sen. Bob Bennett got “primaried” out of office by another Republican. So did Republican Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana. Those men had this habit also of working with Democrats to craft legislation, to get things done for the good of the country.

As the Republican Party continues fighting among itself, though, it is embarking on a suicide mission.

Somewhere, the Gipper is wishing he could come back and talk sense into his ideological descendants.

New Mexico state police chief Robert Schiller has quit his job.

But as the blog attached here notes, there remains some questions to answer:

http://joemonahansnewmexico.blogspot.com/2013/07/gatorgates-first-victim-state-police.html

The husband of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is caught in a dustup over an alligator-hunting trip he took in 2011. He went to Louisiana to hunt some gators, but had state police protection go along with him. Some folks have asked questions about it, wondering why the governor’s office has detailed the expense incurred by Chuck Franco — Martinez’s husband — on the trip.

Schilling is caught in the middle of all this.

Martinez needs to do the right thing and release the details of the expenses. She contends it was paid by private interests, that the public expense amounted to about $123.

That’s not nearly good enough, governor.

Meanwhile, the state has lost its top cop.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wants to “punish” Russia by not allowing our Olympic athletes to venture to Sochi for next year’s Winter Olympics.

Yeah, senator, that’ll teach ’em to quit meddling in the affairs of the United States vs. Edward Snowden.

Give me a break.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/16/sen-graham-us-should-consider-boycotting-olympic-games/

Russia is considering granting Snowden, the NSA leaker who’s on the lam from U.S. law enforcement, temporary asylum while Snowden shops around for a country that will take him permanently. So, to make some kind of point — God only knows what it is — Graham says the United States should deny its Winter Olympic athletes the chance to compete on behalf of their country.

Maybe Graham doesn’t remember, but we tried that once already. In 1980, the then-Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. President Carter decided he would stick it in the Big Bear’s eye by boycotting the Moscow Summer Olympics. Several nations joined us to protest the Soviet invasion. The Games went on without us and they were, from what I understand, largely successful.

Four years later, with the Summer Olympics set for Los Angeles, the Soviets decided to return the favor. They boycotted the LA Games, along with a smattering of their allies around the world. Guess what? The LA Olympics also took place and they, too, were hugely successful.

Not a single thing was accomplished by either boycott.

Nothing will be accomplished with any future boycott if Lindsey Graham has his way. Let’s get real and stop threatening to use our athletes as pawns in a geopolitical chess game.

I’ll say it once again: Tom Pauken could add considerable spice to the Texas Republican governor’s primary campaign in 2014.

Now all Attorney General Greg Abbott has to do is take Pauken — the former Texas Republican Party chairman — up on his debate challenge.

http://blog.beaumontenterprise.com/bayou/2013/07/16/paulken-challenges-perry-lite-greg-abbott-to-serious-debate/

I like the idea of these two men going head to head across the state. They both want to be the state’s next governor and it’s a pretty good bet that one of them will get the job after the November 2014 election.

Abbott has been anointed the frontrunner. I’ve also said this before, too, but Pauken deserves to be heard. He’s claimed there should be no “divine right of succession” to Rick Perry, who’s leaving office in January 2015 after serving since the beginning of time — or so it seems.

Abbott and Pauken are two smart men. They’re trained in the law and they know how to argue their points … whatever they are.

I’m one Texas voter who’s willing to learn more about what these men believe, what they stand for and how they intend to lead this state.

I hate tossing a wet blanket over Wendy Davis’s big moment, but I fear she’s spitting into the wind if she’s harboring hopes of becoming Texas’s next governor.

The Fort Worth Democratic state senator is going to a couple of Washington, D.C., fundraisers soon. The guest list includes some big hitters within the national Democratic Party. They want her to run for governor in 2014 and Davis — still fresh off her filibuster of a restrictive anti-abortion bill — is considering it.

The smart money in Texas believes that 2014 isn’t the Democrats’ year. Perhaps that time will come as the state’s demographic balance keeps changing, but it’s not here just yet. Davis is the party’s newest superstar, given all the national attention she pulled in with her marathon filibuster effort in June.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac/2013/07/wendy-davis-to-make-fundraising-rounds-in-d-c/

One little problem stands in Davis’s way. It’s that Texas is still a heavily Republican state. The GOP already has at least one monstrously formidable candidate running for governor, Attorney General Greg Abbott, who’s still going to face a spirited challenge within his own party from former Texas GOP chairman Tom Pauken.

Texans have shown over the past two decades that they’re going to vote Republican no matter who the party nominates for high office. The latest best example, by my way of thinking, is Railroad Commissioner David Porter, who beat a much more qualified Democratic candidate for a spot on the three-member commission in 2010.

Sen. Davis is swimming against a huge tide if she seeks the governor’s office in 2014. She’s raising a lot of money so far, nearly a million bucks in the past couple of months.

In Texas these days, however, money doesn’t speak nearly as much as party branding. The Republican brand may be poison in much of the rest of the country. In Texas, it remains a kind of political nectar.

I am not surprised at poll results that show Gov. Rick Perry faring poorly among Texas Republicans no less in the still-developing Republican Party field for president in 2016.

Perry announced he wouldn’t seek another term as Texas governor and began dropping all kinds of hints that a second presidential campaign may be in the Pride of Paint Creek’s future.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac/2013/07/top-ten-rick-perry-bows-out-as-governor-polls-poorly-as-presidential-candidate/

But one recent poll shows him tracking in sixth place. The guy in first? U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the state’s junior senator and current golden boy among the tea party wing of his Republican Party.

Why no surprise at Perry’s so-far-dismal poll standing? I’m quite sure Texans have had enough of the governor, who’s occupied his current office since The Flood — or so it seems.

It’s interesting to me as well that one has not heard a lot of teeth-gnashing over his impending departure. Even here in the Texas Panhandle — where Republicans ruled the roost long before they took command of the entire state government/political structure — we’re not hearing a lot of wailing over Perry’s announcement.

My guess is that Texas Republicans yearn for someone fresh to lead them, which makes me wonder why Attorney General Greg Abbott is being anointed as the next probable governor. Abbott’s held statewide office just about as long as Perry, but he’s done so with a lot less fanfare and showmanship than ol’ (with apologies to the late, great columnist Molly Ivins) Gov. Goodhair.

If Perry seriously wants to run for president, he’s got a lot of image-makeover ahead of him. His first run for the GOP presidential nomination was highlighted more by his gaffes and other embarrassments than anything of substance that came out of his mouth.

If he’s polling this badly in Texas — where’s never lost an election — I only can imagine how he’s going to fare in faraway places where voters aren’t as taken with his unique brand of Texas “charm,” if you want to call it that.

Those wacky U.S. Senate Republicans have come to their senses by letting President Obama’s executive branch appointees join the administration team.

What a concept. Someone wins a presidential election, chooses like-minded — and qualified — individuals to run key agencies and they get approved by the Senate, as laid out in the Constitution.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/16/19502641-senate-breaks-standoff-over-nuclear-option?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had threated the “nuclear option” on filibusters, which is removing the 60-vote super majority needed to break the filibuster. Republican senators cried “foul!” even though they had held up some appointments seemingly out of spite.

Today the GOP minority relented. Good for them. The Senate will allow the votes on some appointments, which is all the Obama administration had sought in the first place. One of the stalled appointments involved the selection of labor secretary, which had languished for months.

As Reid and others have noted, elections do have consequences. Presidents are entitled to select team members. The Senate is entitled to provide consent to the appointments. Reasonableness, though, suggests that since the president wins elections, he gets to surround himself with individuals with whom he feels comfortable.

I’m glad the Senate won’t explode under the nuclear option. Let’s not hold our breath believing this kind of fight is over. The partisan divide on Capitol Hill is as deep and wide as ever. I’m quite sure Republicans in both congressional houses will find another issue over which to battle with the president.

I’ll admit to something my family and even a few of my friends have known: I’m a sucker for ceremonies that involve politicians who are able to cross partisan divides.

President Barack Obama and former President George H.W. Bush — one a Democrat the other a Republican — came together today at the White House to honor the 5,000th recipient of the Points of Light Foundation Award given to individuals who exemplify the ideals of the voluntarism promoted by President Bush during his time in office.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/07/obama-praises-george-hw-bush-at-white-house-168382.html?hp=l2

Obama’s agenda has been stymied by partisan division. The arguments have gotten personal between the president and his foes. But he set all that aside to praise a man, known as Bush 41, who is the embodiment of public service.

The link attached to this blog post is a big lengthy, but it gives one a good look at what President Bush’s years of service have meant to the nation. President Obama didn’t detail his predecessor’s service during his remarks at the White House, but it is lengthy: combat during World War II as a naval aviator; service as a member of Congress from Texas; director of the FBI; director of the CIA; special envoy to China; ambassador to the United Nations; vice president of the United States; president of the United States. He’s also helped raise money — along with former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for disaster relief victims since leaving the presidency.

George H.W. Bush might, on paper, be the most qualified man ever to serve as president.

His Points of Light program, initiated immediately after he became president in 1989, carries on the tradition of public service. As Barack Obama noted, it continues in programs developed since ”41″ left office in 1993.

I’m delighted the frail former president was able to attend the ceremony today and to receive such richly deserved high praise from one of his successors.

Events such as these appeal to my sentimental side. I like feeling this way.