(Official editorial the Washington Examiner, January 31) It would be wrongheaded for the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives to remove Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post. It would also be monumentally counterproductive for the Republican Party’s political health, for it would signal that the party is a small tent rather than a big one, intolerant rather than tolerant, and more interested in inflicting punishment than in repairing the damage.
Intraparty plotters would further rip a party that must unify against a new leftist administration. They also would reinforce the image propagated by the Left of Republicans as a party of Jacobins and a failed revolution that eats its own, rather than a party of sober-minded statesmen serving the public.
Cheney has done an excellent job as Republican Conference chairwoman. Leaders shouldn’t be purged because they vote their conscience on subjects in which reasonable people can disagree…. [The full editorial is here.]
(Feb. 1 column: It’s either Cheney, or QAnon craziness)
Within the House Republican Conference, it’s time for a showdown, or, rather, a staredown.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise, Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer, and the ranking Republican in each House standing committee should publicly oppose efforts to purge Wyoming’s Liz Cheney from chairmanship of the House Republican Conference. They should let it be known that party leadership will look askance and perhaps strip House members of valued committee assignments if they support such an intraparty coup attempt.
Furthermore, they should let conference members know that Cheney’s vote of conscience on impeachment, no matter how much they disagree, is far less despicable than many of the bizarrely awful things attributed to the bloody-minded and perhaps anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. A party that rebukes Cheney while not rebuking Greene evinces a loss of moral reasoning.
Some reports say that Trumpian conservatives want to force a vote on dethroning Cheney as early as Wednesday. Bad idea…. [The full column is at this link.]
