Republican House Leadership: Capitulated to Trump's Big Lie

wing2000 said:

Nearly 4 months after the shameful attack on the U.S. Congress, it appears the House Minority Leader McCarthy will move to remove the number 3 Republican in the House - Liz Cheney.

Her sin?

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This is the internal business of the Republican members of the House of Representatives. In any case, "her sin," if that's how you want to word it, was that Rep. Cheney has lost the confidence of most of the House Republicans by her incessant pontificating about her personal animosity towards President Trump. Yet the job to which she had been elected by them requires her to be a conciliator and organizer of the Republican members, both conservatives and moderates, when it comes to votes on pending legislation and other matters.

She failed at her job by her own choice, even though she'd been warned, and even though she had been forgiven for these missteps in an earlier vote of the members. But she persisted anyway, so she has no one but herself to blame if it comes to removing her from that post.

Kevin McCarthy's attempt to oust Cheney has elevated her from "Congresswoman" to "Stateswoman."

I dislike her political philosophy. I admire her courage.

wing2000 said:

Taking a stand on principle is spun as "pontificating on her person animosity"......Bravo.

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Some people prefer to spin the pontificating on her personal animosity as "taking a stand on principle."

But I won't avoid the issue by using such vague and uninformative language as you suggest, and for one good reason. It doesn't explain anything!

The purpose of my post was to answer the question about why the patience of the Republican members of the House towards her has apparently worn thin.

Albion said:

This is the internal business of the Republican members of the House of Representatives.

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This is the business of the second-most influential political group -- with an eye for becoming the first -- inside one of the branches of the US government.

As responsible citizens, it behooves us to pay attention.

She failed at her job by her own choice, even though she'd been warned, and even though she had been forgiven for these missteps in an earlier vote of the members. But she persisted anyway, so she has no one but herself to blame if it comes to removing her from that post.

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God bless her "failure," then.

wing2000 said:

The very fact that other members thinks she needed to be "forgiven" speaks to the sad state of the Republican Party.

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If you wish. What other words in my post would you like to re-write?

Maybe until we get it pared down to "Republicans bad."

Now, if I were to get into that game, here's how I'd re-write the Original Post--

"Nearly 4 months after the shameful attack on the U.S. Congress, it appears the House Minority Leader McCarthy will move to remove the number 3 Republican in the House - Liz Cheney" becomes "Nearly 4 months after the start of this session of Congress, it appears the House Minority Leader McCarthy is ready to hold a vote on the members' choice of the #3 person in Republican leadership."

Not that it matters much, but I didn't say anything that amounts to me forgiving Rep. Cheney for anything, one way or the other.

wing2000 said:

Nearly 4 months after the shameful attack on the U.S. Congress, it appears the House Minority Leader McCarthy will move to remove the number 3 Republican in the House - Liz Cheney.

Her sin?

Speaking her conscience and refusing to cede her party to donald trump. The party platform is quite simple: Unquestioned fealy to Trump.

After the Jan 6 attack, Cheney stated:
“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president.”

Unlike her feckless Republican colleagues, she has stood her ground ever since. This week she tweeted:

“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 tensions escalated on Tuesday, when Mr. McCarthy went on Mr. Trump’s favorite news program, “Fox & Friends,” to question whether Ms. Cheney could effectively carry out her role as the party’s top messenger. (Beforehand, he told a Fox reporter, “I’ve had it with her,” and “I’ve lost confidence,” according to a leaked recording of the exchange published by Axios.)

“I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message,” Mr. McCarthy said during the portion of the interview that aired. “We all need to be working as one, if we’re able to win the majority.”

“This is about whether the Republican Party is going to perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and attempt to whitewash what happened on Jan. 6,” said Jeremy Adler, the spokesman. “Liz will not do that. That is the issue.”

Sen Romney came to her defense:

“Every person of conscience draws a line beyond which they will not go: Liz Cheney refuses to lie,” Mr. Romney wrote on Twitter. “As one of my Republican Senate colleagues said to me following my impeachment vote: ‘I wouldn’t want to be a member of a group that punished someone for following their conscience.’”

House Republicans Have Had Enough of Liz Cheney’s Truth-Telling

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...942f58-ad30-11eb-ab4c-986555a1c511_story.html

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While maybe it's just pandering to that sub group, and she'll be retained on another vote, like before, but if they do oust someone popular and respected by so many millions of independents -- Cheney -- they will be shooting themselves in the foot. In places where margins are close in elections and a party alienates another 1% of voters with an ugly move like that, it's going to matter in a few outcomes here and there. And maybe also in the next prez election.

Generally speaking, that's right. However, Liz Cheney means nothing to voters living outside of Wyoming (!) except for the reports of her badmouthing the most popular Republican in the country. Therefore, the "ugliness" of this move, if it comes to pass, is likely not to be as important as leaving her in her position at a time when there is a great amount of exasperation among Republican voters concerning Republican Congresspersons not showing much willingness to stand up and be counted for much of anything these days.

As I see it, Cheney is practicing 'tough love' -- trying to help people in the party realize it's time to move on, and search out a more viable flag bearer.

Infighting over if trump is pretty or not and trying to impress him, instead of a platform?........excellent. Keep it up, R's!

I admire Cheney for her courage and for standing up for what's right. Good for her. Maybe there is a glimmer of hope for the Republican Party after all. I can hope, but I realize that it's highly unlikely.

wing2000 said:

Taking a stand on principle is spun as "pontificating on her person animosity"......Bravo.

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Not taking a stand on moral principle resulted in Trump being acquitted in his first impeachment trial. It's what Mitch McConnell failed to do as well when he didn't vote to convict Trump for inciting the riot at the Capitol on January 6th. He had this one chance to do the right thing and he failed miserably.

McConnell: Trump 'provoked' Capitol Siege, mob was fed lies

We need to remove all the obstructionists that stand in the way of a foceful seizure of the government and the reinstatement of the party leader.

I applaud this effort of the GOP to make their tent smaller and Trumpier.

Progress Radio discussed this this morning, in relation to Mitch McConnell's first assessing that Trump had initiated the insurrection to back tracking later on.

Progress Radio believes that McConnell is playing the long game. He desperately wants Trump to fade into the woodwork but knows he has to stay under the radar. He figures that if Biden succeeds (and the American public is very pleased so far) that Republicans will lose badly in 2022. They will blame it on Trump, and then McConnell will try to rebuild the party in time for the 2024 election with a different standard bearer.

I wonder if any of these Republican legislators talk to one another. As I understand it, most of them have stuck with Trump out of fear because he controls a critical mass of voters--but if they all acted in concert they would be able to lead a movement away from Trump.

Instead, they haven't even had the courage to take a serious stand against Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.

I can understand that it's hard to stand alone (no matter how righteous and just your cause) so they should get together for the good of their principles.

That being said, I am glad that their disarray is making things a little easier for Democrats.