It’s no secret that Liz Cheney is about to be primaried out of her House seat in Wyoming. What is also becoming less of a secret are her aspirations to the presidency.

Up until now, Liz Cheney has been beating one particular drum: Donald Trump caused January 6th and is therefore too dangerous to become president ever again. She even got her dad, Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney himself, to back her up in a campaign ad. Nevertheless, Liz refuses to admit that she’s going down, and plans on fighting against Donald Trump in perpetuity, it seems.

Cheney said she expects to win her primary in less than two weeks, despite her opponents attacking her role on the committee.”

“I don’t expect to lose. I’m working hard to earn every single vote and, ultimately, I really believe that the people of Wyoming fundamentally understand how important fidelity to the Constitution is; understand how important it is that we fight for those fundamental principles on which everything else is based,” she said.”

However, the congresswoman also made clear that she is not tempering her criticism of Trump at all — even if it costs her the House seat that her father held and that she has held since 2017.”

“We’re in a situation where former President Trump has betrayed the patriotism of millions and millions of people across our country, and many people here in Wyoming, and he’s lied to them,” she said. “And what I know to do is to tell the truth, and to make sure that people understand the truth about what happened and why it matters so much.”

Liz Cheney, like so many other Democrats (*cough*) has decided that she is running against Donald Trump. Problem – Donald Trump’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on that primary ballot as a candidate. The voters in Wyoming are voting on YOU, Liz, and what they perceive YOU are doing as their representative. And the poll numbers are not pretty for Cheney. There’s a little over a week to go before the primary, and she has literally pulled out every single stop. She’s begged Democrats to vote for her, she’s trotted out her own dad. Unless she plans on switching parties, there’s nothing left for her to try.

But that doesn’t matter, because Liz Cheney, with the encouragement of friends, is already setting her goals higher. However, she’s also exposing her critique of Donald Trump as nothing more than a convenient excuse. Liz Cheney thinks she could run for president, and that she is the only “true” conservative left. How do we know this? The New York Times just published a profile of their favorite-Republican-of-the-moment, and in this piece, she says she could not support… Ron DeSantis.

Wait, what???

Ms. Cheney suggested she was animated as much by Trumpism as by Mr. Trump himself. She could support a Republican for president in 2024, she said, but her red line is a refusal to state clearly that Mr. Trump lost a legitimate election in 2020.”

Asked if the ranks of off-limits candidates included Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, whom many Republicans have latched onto as a Trump alternative, she said she “would find it very difficult” to support Mr. DeSantis in a general election.”

“I think that Ron DeSantis has lined himself up almost entirely with Donald Trump, and I think that’s very dangerous,” Ms. Cheney said.”

So, Donald Trump is too dangerous because of what happened on January 6th, but Ron DeSantis is too close to Donald Trump? Hmmm, I thought this was all about January 6th! Turns out, it’s more about getting power back in the hands of a Republican power family, apparently.

At a house party Thursday night in Cheyenne, with the former vice president happily looking on under a pair of mounted leather chaps, the host introduced Ms. Cheney by recalling how another Republican woman, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, confronted Senator Joseph McCarthy when doing so was unpopular — and went on to become the first female candidate for president from a major party.”

The attendees applauded at the parallel, as Ms. Cheney smiled.”

Aha. I see. Liz Cheney thinks because her last name is Cheney, she is ENTITLED to consideration for the White House, after tearing down her party and then presenting herself as its only hope for salvation.

Ms. Cheney said she had no interest in changing parties: “I’m a Republican.” But when asked if the G.O.P. she was raised in was even salvageable in the short term, she said: “It may not be” and called her party “very sick.”

The party, she said, “is continuing to drive itself in a ditch and I think it’s going to take several cycles if it can be healed.”

How convenient that Liz Cheney thinks that the GOP has “driven itself into a ditch” right before she presents herself to be the ONLY option for a safe and respectable designated driver.

Well, the voters of Wyoming – at least the ones that CNN could find – were not inclined to support Liz Cheney right now, so I’m thinking her presidential aspirations are kind of problematic.
https://twitter.com/ThatJoeDanGuy/status/1553459746329530368
And this NYT profile just pulls the curtain back even further. If Donald Trump is sooooo problematic, then Liz Cheney should be throwing her support behind someone like Ron DeSantis as a potential primary challenger. That she is refusing to do so tells everyone that this isn’t really about Donald Trump, January 6th, Ron DeSantis, or the Republican party. It’s ALL about putting her, with her political family and political connections, back into power. Glenn Greenwald – no right-wing apologist – absolutely ripped the Cheney family apart in a long Twitter thread about why they hate Donald Trump so much: he is a threat to THEIR political power.

Brilliant thread, but this tweet sums it all up. YOU may not hate Trump because he stood up to the neocon foreign policy, forever-war establishment. But that’s exactly why Liz and Dick Cheney hate Trump. https://t.co/qx91smGYYE

— John William Sherrod (@jwsherrod) August 5, 2022

Now, I have a much kinder view of the Bushes and Cheneys than Glenn Greenwald does, but it’s clear that Liz Cheney is hoping to trade up by using her family name, after completely trashing the Republican party and burning down all her bridges with current leadership, on her way out the door. And if that’s what she wants to do, fine. But there is no way that she should expect open arms for a Republican primary so she can keep “sticking it” to Donald Trump. Imagine Liz Cheney on a primary debate stage with Donald Trump. All she would do is yell about January 6th, and not the Biden polices that have given us record inflation and a recession that the Democrats and media won’t admit is happening.

For all my complaints that Donald Trump can’t move past the 2020 election, Liz Cheney can’t move past January 6th. And the voters are going to be looking for a candidate that isn’t going to spend time rehashing the past.

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