Irish Examiner view: Cheney likely to pay price for stance
Liz Cheney further angered Trump and his allies by being only one of two Republicans to accept a position on the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack, becoming the vice-chair. Picture: J Scott Applewhite/AP
Politics is a dirty game at the best of times and a good example of just how dirty will be seen in the state of Wyoming today when the state votes on who will be its sole representative in the US House of Representatives.
The incumbent is Republican Liz Cheney and, in normal circumstances, she should be a shoo-in for another four-year term in what is a deeply conservative state.
She was elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2018 with well over double the votes of her nearest Democrat rival. But then she voted to impeach the then president Trump for his role in the insurrection, death, and mayhem at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Her temerity was rewarded by her party colleagues when she was subsequently removed from her position as chair of the House Republican Conference in May that year as Trump and his supporters in the party rallied to back the former president and silence opponents within the GOP.
She further angered Trump and his allies by being only one of two Republicans to accept a position on the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, becoming the vice-chair.
That appointment further angered Republicans and in Wyoming last November the GOP there voted to no longer recognise her as a member of the party.
A Trump-endorsed replacement, Harriet Hageman, was selected to contest the election as the official Republican candidate.
Ms Cheney has gilt-edged Republican credentials. Her father, Dick Cheney was vice-president in the George W Bush administration and her mother, Lynne, was second lady of the US and herself has an impeccable GOP history.
Liz Cheney also served in several positions in the State Department during that Bush government.
But, her insistence on getting to the truth of the January 6 insurrection — and specifically Trump’s part in it — has seen her reviled within her own party and, according to the latest polls in Wyoming’s main paper, the , she has just 30% support state-wide, as against Hageman’s 52%.
Despite a plea to Democrats in Wyoming to cross party lines and back her campaign, Cheney still looks very unlikely to retain her seat and her career in the House of Representatives looks bleak.
The vote in Wyoming today is likely to see her lose her seat in Congress — largely because of her opposition to Trump.
She and 10 other Republicans broke ranks to impeach Trump as a result of January 6 and almost all of them will be gone when the next congress sits in January.
It is a sad fact that politicians thrive when they back winners, no matter how gross they are — something not solely an American phenomenon.
Unfortunately for Cheney, she took sides with the opposition and refused to back a loser. It looks like her principled stand will end her career.
