Tag Archives: Liz Cheney

national news

Liz Cheney: no martyr

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Frank Bruni is a superb columnist for the New York Times.

He is passionate about many issues dear to progressives, especially marriage equality; I mean, he is a gay man who writes frequently about the issue … and does so with superb rhetoric.

That all said, I believe he is mistaken when he implies in his latest column that Rep. Liz Cheney is positioning herself as a martyr of some sort. I don’t believe that’s happening.

Cheney is likely to lose her House Republican caucus chairmanship because she voted to impeach Donald Trump in January for inciting the infamous riot at the Capitol Building.

She remains what she always has been: a conservative Republican who voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump’s agenda. That isn’t good enough to save her leadership post. The Trump cult that comprises most GOP House members want her gone.

So she’s going to keep harping against Trump. Good for her! Is she pretending to be something other than a conservative GOP lawmaker? I don’t see it.

Opinion | Is Liz Cheney a Martyr — or Just a Hack in Holy Drag? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

DC riot

McCarthy makes it clear: He is a Trump toadie

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Kevin “The Snake” McCarthy has thrown in with a Donald Trump sycophant in the intramural fight among Republican caucus members in the U.S. House.

The California lawmaker, the leader of the GOP caucus, said today he is backing Rep. Elise Stefanik in her bid to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from the Republican Caucus chairmanship.

McCarthy says he supports Stefanik for House GOP conference chair | TheHill

What did Cheney do to incur McCarthy’s wrath? All she did was vote to impeach Donald Trump after the ex-POTUS incited the insurrection of The Sixth of January. Cheney had the temerity to stand strongly in favor of the U.S. Constitution, which the terrorists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 threatened directly. And, yes, Donald Trump was the instigator.

This is a disgraceful display from the House GOP leader. He makes me sick.

As for Stefanik, a New York Republican, she makes me sick, too. Her only credential is that she is a Trump toadie, a suck-up, a Kool-Aid swilling member of the Trumpkin Corps of acolytes who believes the election was “stolen” by some mysterious, nefarious cabal.

This internecine war among Republicans isn’t likely to end with Cheney’s expected ouster from the leadership of her party’s House caucus. Nor should it.

As for “leader” McCarthy, well … he makes feel like throwing up.

national news

Liz Cheney: My new hero

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Man, it is hard to believe that I am actually pulling for Liz Cheney to fend off this idiotic challenge to her leadership post within the House Republican leadership hierarchy.

The Wyoming lawmaker is being vilified by the Trumpkins who have seized control of the party. Her offense? For voting to impeach Donald J. Trump after the then-POTUS incited the insurrection against the government as it was certifying the results of the 2020 election that went for President Biden over their guy, Trump.

I wouldn’t vote for Rep. Cheney if I lived in Wyoming. She is too much of a right-winger to suit my taste. On this single matter, I find myself rooting for her to survive the challenge launched by the likes of Trump-loving loons Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

The House GOP caucus has been virtually silent about Gaetz, who’s being investigated for alleged sex trafficking. As for the QAnon queen Greene, I ain’t hearing much worry from the GOP on her, either.

So now we have Liz Cheney trying to fend off the GOP hyenas. I would much rather have a Republican Party that fuels its existence on the basis of policy differences rather than its fealty to a lunatic like Donald Trump.

I’m pulling for Liz Cheney. If she loses her House GOP caucus post, I hope she keeps her throat cleared and continues to tell her colleagues that they are making a terrible mistake in backing the purveyor of The Big Lie.

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Cheney vs. Stefanik? Weird, man

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have done a little sniffing around about the individual who is likely to succeed U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney as the House Republican Conference chair.

Rep. Elise Stefanik is campaigning hard for the post among her GOP colleagues. She wants to be a leader among House Republicans. She has gotten the endorsement of the ex-POTUS, Donald Trump.

But … why?

Here’s what I have found out. Stefanik is not a mainstream or a Trump conservative. Her sole qualification for the job apparently is that she stuck up for Trump when he got himself in trouble over trying to seek political favors from a foreign government and then for inciting the insurrection.

A quick look at Stefanik’s still-scant congressional record reveals some interesting things.

Conservative political action groups rate her pro-Trump voting record at around 77 percent; Cheney’s is at about 92 percent. You want more? Let’s try these:

Stefanik voted against the Trump tax cut proposal in 2017; she voted in favor of the Equality Act that stood for greater rights for gay Americans; Stefanik opposed Trump’s decision to ban entry into the United States of people coming from certain Muslim countries; Stefanik was one of 14 Republicans to vote with all House Democrats to override Trump’s veto of a measure unwinding the latter’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border.

Do you get where I’m going with this? She opposed Trump on several key Trump-supported initiatives. She was decidedly less conservative than Rep. Cheney.

Do you think for a nano-second that Donald Trump gives a rip about such mundane matters as, um, legislation and government policy? Hell no! All he wants is blind loyalty.

He isn’t getting it from Liz Cheney. Elise Stefanik has provided the requisite brown-nosing that the ex-POTUS demands.

A cult of personality? There you have it.

national news

GOP gone into the tank

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The congressional Republican caucus has gone straight into the tank. Consider a couple of notable examples.

One GOP House member, Matt Gaetz of Florida, has been accused of having sex with a girl and of taking part in an alleged sex trafficking ring. Where is the House GOP leadership on that matter? Silent, man. Nothing but crickets.

Another GOP House member, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voted to impeach Donald Trump in January of this year after he incited the insurrection against the U.S. government. She has continued to criticize Trump. House leaders’ response to Cheney? They want to boot her out of the House GOP leadership.

Let’s see. Gaetz remains a loyal Trumpkin; Cheney stands for the Constitution. Gaetz gets a pass because he hangs with The Donald; Cheney faces punishment because she adheres to her sacred oath of office.

Fealty to Donald Trump, therefore, has become the Republican litmus test.

Astonishing.

national news

Cheney fights back

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney does not lack political moxie. Nor does she lack the courage to fight back against the loons within her Republican Party who continue to foment The Big Lie that poured first out of Donald Trump’s mouth.

Cheney faces the prospect of losing her leadership post within the GOP caucus in the House of Representatives. Why? Because she isn’t backing down in her criticism of Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from him.

She said this on Twitter: The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.

The “anyone” to whom she refers would be the ex-POTUS himself.

I am going to stand with Rep. Cheney on this one, even though she represents — in most instances — the far right wing of a party in the midst of a civil war.

Cheney is on the right side of history. The Trumpkins who want her removed from her leadership post are flirting with disaster.

national news

Keep speaking, Rep. Cheney

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It occurs to me that congressional Republicans might not be doing themselves any favors if they oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her GOP caucus leadership post.

Cheney, who’s become a target of Donald Trump cultists within the GOP caucus, well might be relieved of her No. 3 position on the party leadership ladder.

She intends to keep speaking out about how the party has been hijacked, kidnapped and perverted by the cultists who adhere to the ex-POTUS’s nonsense, namely the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election.

Think of it. Rep. Cheney might now be free to speak her mind without additional fear of retribution.

Cheney wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post. She said this: “Trump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work — confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this,” Cheney wrote.

Cheney hits ‘Trump cult of personality,’ says she’ll keep speaking out | TheHill

Keep talking, Rep. Cheney.

national news

GOP set to make hideous choice

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Has it really come down to this?

The Republican congressional caucus might be on the verge of purging its leadership of a true-blue conservative lawmaker with impeccable party credentials.

Why? Because she voted to impeach a president who incited a deadly riot on Jan. 6 and because she stands on certain principles that all patriotic Americans ought to follow: that no one is above the law.

Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and No. 3 in the GOP caucus leadership pecking order, might be voted out of her post because she believes that Donald Trump’s fomenting of the Big Lie about the 2020 election presents a danger to our democratic system of government.

And for that the GOP might send her to the back bench?

That is unbelievable, except that is what has become of a once-great political party.

The GOP has become a cult of personality beholden to someone who had no business being elected president of the United States in the first place. When he was elected in 2016, Donald Trump began the systematic dismantling of every political norm he could grab.

Along the way, he formed the astonishing cult of believers who adhere only to the whims and machinations of one man at the expense of good governance.

That individual has refused to this day to accept the fact that he lost an election and has taken the cult following to dangerous levels of blind fealty. It is a sight to behold.

I am not a fan of Rep. Cheney. Except for this notion: She is standing for a principle that I used to think transcended the partisan political divide. The principle is the rule of law.

Donald Trump incited an insurrection. The House of Reps impeached a second time for it. Cheney was one of 10 Republican House members to join their Democratic colleagues in holding Trump accountable for his incitement.

For that she is being punished? Because she stands for the belief that our Constitution and our democratic system of government — which she swore to protect — are more important than the political standing of one man?

Scary, man!

DC riot, national news

GOP leader has ‘had it’ with Cheney?

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I never thought the day would come that I would be standing behind a conservative Republican member of Congress.

But here I am, telling you that Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is getting the bum’s rush from her party leaders simply because she — and not them — chose to honor the U.S. Constitution they all swore an oath to protect and defend.

Disgusting, despicable, disgraceful.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California says he has “had it” with Rep. Cheney, which means she could lose her job as the House’s No. 3 GOP leader. Why is that? Because she voted to impeach Donald Trump after the president of the United States incited the insurrection mounted by the terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.

So, because she believes that Trump committed an act against the government by inciting the rioters to do what they did.

Is she less of a Republican politician because she chose to honor the Constitution? Of course not! Yet the GOP leadership now demands fealty to a cult leader above all else.

McCarthy has done the impossible. He has turned this center-left American patriot into a fan of a right-leaning member of Congress.

I am proud of Liz Cheney for standing up for the Constitution.

DC riot

Liz Cheney is so correct

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hell clearly has entered the deep freeze.

How do I know that? Because I happen to agree with U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who I once considered to be one of the GOP’s premier fire-breathers.

No longer do I hold that view.

Rep. Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump over his inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Now she says that anyone in Congress who had a hand in voting to overturn the 2020 presidential election should be disqualified from running for president in 2024.

That means you, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Cheney ventured to a GOP retreat in Florida. As CNN reported: “I think we have a huge number of interesting candidates, but I think that we’re going to be in a good position to be able to take the White House,” she told the New York Post. “I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge, not to certify the election, you know, in my view, that’s disqualifying.”

You see why I agree with her? She makes sense. Cheney is a rock-ribbed, true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool Republican. She also understands the Constitution and values greatly the oath she took to protect and defend it. Unlike the nimrods in the House and Senate who voted to object to the results of a free and fair election that elected Joe Biden as president of the United States.

Liz Cheney thinks January 6 should be ‘disqualifying’ for some GOPers (msn.com)

I intend to stand with the likes of Liz Cheney any day over the machinations and lies being pitched by those who support the one-time Liar in Chief.