The New York Times Slobbers All Over Liz Cheney and Her Jan. 6 'Mission'

Ah, what can we say about Wyoming “Republican” Representative Liz Cheney?

If you’re a Republican (with the exception of dissenters), you rip Cheney to absolute shreds for her staunch anti-Trumpism and gleeful participation on Nancy Pelosi’s “illegitimate” January 6 Committee.

But if you’re The New York Times, you publish a pathetic article (a slobbering love letter, as it were), effusively praising the embattled lawmaker for her “measured voice, belying the outrage she feels,” and becoming Trump’s “most prominent antagonist.” (Spoiler: it gets worse.)

As The Times noted, Cheney, on one hand, has become the unlikely hero of many who once vilified her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, while at the same time becoming a pariah to fellow Republicans with whom she once worked closely. Either way, Liz Cheney has all but destroyed her chances of continuing her political career — unless she leaves the GOP and officially comes out of the Democrat closet.

Meanwhile, how convicted is Cheney, despite the regular blistering she receives from the predictable for her “disloyalty”? As quoted by The Times, this convicted:

I believe this is the most important thing I’ve ever done professionally, and maybe the most important thing I ever do.

Hence the polarization of America’s opinion of Dick Cheney’s Trump-loathing daughter.

Let’s dip into The Times’ love letter for a few choice snippets. (Emphasis, mine.)

The chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee is out with Covid-19. So after giving opening remarks by video when the panel convenes its final scheduled prime-time hearing of the summer on Thursday night, he will turn the gavel over to Representative Liz Cheney. But for all intents and purposes, it has been the Liz Cheney show all along.

Through six weeks of televised hearings in this season of reckoning, she has emerged as the lead narrator and chief accuser, coaxing reluctant former officials to come forward, issuing stern warnings against witness tampering and drawing out the story one damning fact at a time to argue that former President Donald J. Trump betrayed the Constitution out of hunger for power.

In an even, measured voice, belying the outrage she feels, Ms. Cheney has confronted the leader of her party and called out those who enabled him, becoming Mr. Trump’s most prominent antagonist even as the Justice Department takes its time considering what to do and President Biden largely sits on the sidelines.

In response to The Times, Cheney didn’t disappoint the left:

I don’t look at it through a political lens, I look at it through the angle of people need to understand how dangerous he is and how unfit for office he is. I believe this is the most important thing I’ve ever done professionally” and maybe the most important thing I ever do.

Yeah, well, maybe so. but even “maybe-er” so, Cheney is going to get her ass handed to her in the Wyoming primary in August, according to most poll findings. (More, later.)

The Times suggested the Democrat fix was in from the beginning to “thrust” Cheney front and center.”

It is no accident that the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans has thrust Ms. Cheney forward as its most visible presenter and questioner.

She was a Republican long before Mr. Trump was, supported most of his policies, and voted for him twice.

For the most part, she remains as conservative as ever, making it harder to dismiss the investigation as a liberal, partisan witch hunt.

Making it harder for whom? Pelosi’s anticlimatic “show trial” has pretty much been a Democrat nothingburger, and the notion of Liz Cheney remaining “conservative as ever” is laugh-out-loud ridiculous.

Moreover, the televised hearing ratings have swirled down the toilet as fast as those of Joe Biden.

Predictably, Trump — who is incapable of refraining from sophomoric name-calling — and Trump loyalists branded Cheney a “traitor,” at least as far back as the first House impeachment of Trump. As noted by The Times, Trump has lashed out at Cheney on social media multiple times, including calling her “a despicable human being.”

As the hearings have continued, gushed the Times, Cheney has “become a household name as never before,” and is often stopped in airports for “selfies or a handshake.” Said Cheney:

It’s almost entirely friendly and really moving. People across the political spectrum who say thank you, especially young people.

Of her work with Democrats on the committee — that “traitor” thing — Cheney told The Times “I’m sure it’s as weird for them as it is for me.” She has grown close to some of them, The Times noted, including despicable Maryland representative, Jamie Raskin.

Cheney says committee Democrats have joked that they cannot wait for the day when they can disagree with her again. “That’ll mean our politics have righted themselves,” Cheney said.

I’m not sure when our politics will “right themselves,” or what it will look like when — or if — that happens, but I’m pretty sure Liz Cheney won’t be around to play her games by then.

In a mid-July poll conducted for the Casper Star-Tribune, the largest newspaper in Wyoming, Trump-backed natural resources attorney Harriet Hageman held a 22-point lead over the embattled incumbent.

“Former President Donald Trump’s pick to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney in the race for Wyoming’s lone House seat holds a commanding 22-point lead with a month until the primary” https://t.co/AQjBiIqOAA

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) July 16, 2022