Tag Archives: Liz Cheney

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Why punish ’em because of one man?

Never will I understand the “rationale” that has gripped the modern Republican Party, which is turning its ire on politicians who have the temerity to oppose a single individual … with zero regard to their established records.

You know to whom I refer. Donald Trump has established a cult following among so-called “core” Republicans. That core takes its vengeance out on politicians and political candidates who bitch out loud about the immorality and unfitness for public office that Trump exhibits multiple times daily.

Such political petulance has cost the GOP core several key figures in the ranks of politicians who formerly carried the party’s message forward.

Liz Cheney is one of the victims. She had the nerve to declare Trump to be an existential threat to our national political fabric. Her punishment was to be voted out in the 2022 GOP primary in Wyoming, which she represented in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She is as conservative as they come. Her record opposing abortion, gun control legislation, excessive taxes and so many other hot-button issues is intact. It’s not good enough for the MAGA morons who dominate the political landscape in her state.

Same for Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. He voted to convict Trump in both of his Senate impeachment trials. Now comes word that the MAGA minions will “primary” him when his term comes up. What the hell? He was the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee and remains a staunch, avid and vocal conservative. He also believes Trump is a chump, a phony and a fraud.

Those are just two prime examples of the disease that has infected a once-great political party. The GOP has become one man’s play thing to the detriment of those who believe in actual conservative values, not to mention to the rest of us who worry about the future of our democratic republic.

It’s all so sad and sickening.

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Liz Cheney a Democrat? C’mon!

You hear it from time to time, that Liz Cheney is going to become a Democrat after spending a lifetime as a Republican.

All I can say to that is … c’mon, man. It won’t happen. Not ever.

At least that’s my belief.

Cheney is the former Wyoming congresswoman who bolted GOP orthodoxy by being a staunch, vocal and ferocious critic of Donald J. Trump because, in many millions of Americans’ view, he violated his oath of office.

She paid for her rebellion by being ousted from the party and then by losing her 2022 GOP primary election to a Trumpkin.

But … is all of this reason for her to become a Democrat? No. It isn’t.

Cheney has said all along that she remains a pro-gun, pro-life, low-tax, fiscal conservative who believes strongly in the traditional Republican principles that led her to join the party of her father, former U.S. Rep. and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.

Her only variation from what passes now for Republicanism is that she believes Donald Trump is a menace to the nation and should never, ever return to the White House … especially as president of the United States.

As for the talk about her joining the Democratic Party, it ain’t gonna happen … again, that’s my belief. Still, there is much to admire about a politician who is willing to pay the political price Liz Cheney paid while standing tall for democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Santos needs harsh discipline

New York has a new congressman, a young man who lied his way into office, but the state’s Republican Party has uttered nary a peep about the disgraceful conduct of one George Santos.

There is supposed to be a “major announcement” coming from the New York GOP about the liar from the Empire State.

Let’s recall a bit of recent Republican history. GOP honchos in Wyoming decided that former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney’s insistence that Donald Trump broke the law by inciting the 1/6 insurrection was grounds for censure. So, it censured the congresswoman in early 2022. It banished her from the party she served with honor and principle. She then lost her primary battle to a Trump insider.

Fast-forward to the present day. We have another GOP officeholder who lied about his education, his employment history, his family’s background, and even possibly about his sexual orientation. He sold himself to voters as being someone other than who he is. He calls it an “embellishment.” No! It’s a lie. All of it.

What are the Republicans doing about that? Not a damn thing, at least not so far!

Double standard, anyone … anyone?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Cheney’s credentials: They are impeccable

You aren’t about to read the final blog item I’ll ever post about Liz Cheney, but I feel moved to say this as she prepares to cast the most significant votes of her congressional career.

She is going to vote Monday — I am quite certain — in favor of referring criminal charges against Donald J. Trump for his role in the insurrection and assorted other crimes he committed.

Cheney, a congresswoman from Wyoming who lost her primary battle earlier this year to a Trump sycophant, has been accused of being a “traitor” to the party.

Hmm. I want to make this point one more time, with emphasis.

Cheney’s voting record during her years in Congress has been as staunchly Republican and conservative as anyone ever elected under the GOP banner.

She is staunchly pro-life on abortion; she has opposed legislation aimed at curbing gun violence, standing with the gun lobby every single time; she has been a small-government conservative, favoring tax cuts for businesses, even those that make billions of dollars for their owners; she has been tough on illegal immigration; she supported our war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Liz Cheney voted in favor of Trump’s legislative agenda more than 90% of the time!

She isn’t my type of legislator. However, she won the hearts of liberals and even a few moderate Republicans for the courage she has shown in standing firm for the Constitution and for opposing Trump’s blatant, illegal and immoral power grab.

The allegation of being a “traitor” comes from those who pledge their loyalty to a man and who — like their cult hero — ignored the oath of office they took to protect and defend the nation’s governing document.

I declare once more my admiration for Rep. Cheney for standing up for the rule of law. Would I vote for her for any public office? Uhh, probably not, but … I would if the only other opponent on any ballot was the man she wants to ensure “never gets close to the Oval Office ever again.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Cheney goes out with a roar

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Say what you might about lame-duck U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, Iā€™ll just add this: She is going out of office with a mighty roar and not a whimper.

She reportedly said this recently about her arch enemy, fellow Republican Donald J. Trump:Ā ā€œNo honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.ā€

Ouch, man!

Cheney earned a primary challenge this year for standing up for the Constitution and standing against Trumpā€™s aim to undermine it, to gut it, to reverse a free, fair and legal election for president in 2020. Cheney got thumped hard by Wyoming Republican voters. She has been a lame duck in name only ever since.

Cheney has served with courage, determination and distinction on the U.S. House select committee examining the insurrection that Trump incited. I already have expressed my admiration for this true-blue, rock-solid Republican conservative lawmaker.

She has been punished only for defying a former president whose sole aim is to cling to power.

I am one American patriot who will hold her forever in the highest esteem possible.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Now comes the 1/6 panel

Donald J. Trumpā€™s business organization is guilty of tax fraud. That appears to be the prelim to the main event, which is ready for the bell-ringing any day now.

The House select 1/6 committee examining the insurrection and Trumpā€™s role in inciting it is set to make its findings known to the public. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson has spilled the beans, telling us that there will be ā€œcriminal referralsā€ contained in the report.

Hmm. Letā€™s see. Who might the committee ā€œreferā€ for indictment? My hunch is that it will include Trump his own self.

Let us be clear. The committee cannot indict anyone. It must hand that duty over to the Justice Department, or the agent DOJ has chosen to represent it. That means the special counsel Jack Smith is likely to get the referral, given that Attorney General Merrick Garland has recused himself from any direct investigation into the insurrection or the document theft from the White House.

The only curiosity left to satisfy is learning whether fire-breathing Republican committee member Liz Cheney got her way in singling out Trumpā€™s role. There reportedly has been something of a rift between Cheney and other panel members over how to focus its final report; others reportedly wanted to shy away from Trumpā€™s role in the insurrection and focus instead on the systemic failures that led to it.

Whatever ā€¦

If the committee is going to make a criminal referral, it ought to go all the way to the top of the food chain. That would mean Donald John Trump.

I believe it has collected more than enough evidence to take this remarkable step toward seeking full accountability for that terrible day in our nationā€™s history.

Let ā€˜er rip, committee members.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Kinzinger stands tall

I wrote earlier today about the heroism U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney has exhibited in her defense of the oath she took to protect the Constitution against the assault on it led by Donald J. Trump.

Another Republican House member deserves high praise. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has stood tall alongside Cheney in his criticism of Trump’s conduct post-2020 presidential election.

The major difference between Kinzinger and Cheney rests in the way their political careers are concluding. Whereas Cheney suffered a GOP primary defeat at the hands of a Trump/MAGA supporter, Kinzinger is leaving office on his own terms. He chose not to seek re-election this year and, thus, he declared himself to be a lame duck.

His lame-duck status has elevated him to a spot on the 1/6 House select committee examining the event — the attack on the Capitol by the mob of traitors that led to Donald Trump’s second impeachment.

Kinzinger has stood strong and firm against attacks leveled at him by the MAGA cultists who insist The Big Lie is true, that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.

There surely will be a day when the Republican Party will shed its Donald Trump-crafted identity. That it will return to a party of principle and policy. I hope when that day arrives that Adam Kinzinger will be a part of that revival.

This earnest young man who served his country in uniform has earned the nation’s gratitude for standing firmly in support of the Constitution he pledged to protect.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Liz Cheney: GOP hero

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Now that I am in the mood to hand out kudos to public officials who are leaving the stage, I want to say a word or two in praise of a congresswoman I never imagined praising for her work on my behalf.

Stand tall, Liz Cheney.

Cheney is a Republican from Wyoming who this summer got drummed out of office in the GOP primary by a candidate who was promoted by the former POTUS. Why? Because Cheney chose to stand for the Constitution, chose to honor her oath to protect and defend the Constitution and because both of those matters went counter to the wishes of the POTUS who refused to do either.

She became a target of the MAGA cultists who profess fealty to Donald Trump.

Cheney hasn’t wavered in her commitment to the Constitution. She continues to serve on the House select committee formed to examine the 1/6 insurrection/attack on the Capitol. She blames Trump for inciting the attack. She has vowed to do all she can to prevent Trump from ever entering the Oval Office again. She is one of two Republicans — the other being Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to serve on this committee; I will have more to say about Kinzinger later.

Liz Cheney makes no apologies for her staunch conservative views. She voted with Trump more than 90% of the time during Trump’s term in office. I truly understand her philosophy. She remains adamantly pro-gun, pro-life, anti-tax, and pro-small government. She is a conservative’s conservative.

Cheney also is equally adamant that she must follow her oath. She has done so gloriously in rising up against the ex-president who incited the assault on our government in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

I salute this public official. I wish her all the very best.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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What? Cheney will dump GOP?

ā€œI’m going to make sure Donald Trump, make sure he’s not the nominee … And if he is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican.ā€

Let’s ponder for a moment who made that statement.

It comes from Liz Cheney, the senior Republican on the House select 1/6 committee. She has been a Republican her entire adult life. Her dad is former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, a Republican’s Republican if ever there was one.

She has declared at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin that if Donald J. Trump is the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, she will cease belonging to the party to which she has devoted her entire public life.

In one way that stuns me, given what I know about Cheney’s GOP credentials. In another way, I shouldn’t be surprised.

Wyoming voters cast her aside in August’s GOP primary. She sought another term as Wyoming’s lone member of the U.S. House. GOP primary voters said, in effect, forget about it, Liz; we don’t want you in the party. We censured you because you aren’t loyal to Trump.

According to the Texas Tribune: Cheney maintained that she is an ardent conservative on policy issues, voting in near lockstep with Trumpā€™s legislative agenda when he was in office. But she warned a House Republican majority would give outsized power to members who have been staunch allies of the former president and his efforts to keep the White House, including U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Jim Jordan.

And she is all of that. Cheney also believes in the rule of law, in the oath she and Trump both took to “defend and protect” the Constitution.

Frankly — despite the fact that she represents an ideology that I dislike and my belief that Trump won’t be nominated in 2024 — I happen to be proud of Rep. Liz Cheney for standing firm on behalf of the truth.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Lame-duck courage: overrated

One would think that a politician who declares his or her intention to walk away from a public office would be infused with all manner of courage to say things about which he or she would normally remain quiet.

It is not so.

How do I know that? Because I know many politicians in this era of hyper-division who have announced their intention to bow out of the public arena but who don’t go public with how they really feel about other pols and public policy issues.

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley over the weekend, for instance, said out loud that he would vote for Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Mike Collier over incumbent Republican Dan Patrick. Big deal? Yeah, it is. Whitley is a stellar, stalwart mainstream Republican politician who told WFAA-TV that he won’t back arguably the state’s most power GOP politician.

Why does Whitley stand out? Why aren’t there many more politicians willing to say what Whitley said. It doesn’t take a whole lot of courage for a lame-duck pol to speak from his or her gut when they no longer face a political campaign.

Yet, for reasons that escape me too few of them step up and speak their minds.

Might it be that they don’t want to face their next-door neighbor who would challenge their intelligence? Or the guy in the grocery story who would recognize them? Or perhaps the husband and wife who sit next to them in the house of worship on Sunday?

What does take courage is for a politician who continues to run for re-election to challenge the party’s leadership. I give you Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has condemned Donald Trump in the strongest terms possible … only to lose huge in the recent GOP primary in her state.

We’re seeing a large number of Congress members retiring this year. However, we are seeing a surprisingly limited number of them speaking from their gut about the future of their party … or the nation.

That frustrates me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com