OPINION:
Look. There’s a political battle going on within the Republican leadership over, well, who’s going to lead.
But it’s potato, potahto. Tomato, tomahto. Liz Cheney, Kevin McCarthy.
They’re all the same. They’re all the same in that their political ambitions come first and that of the voters who pay their salaries, second. A very distant second.
President Donald Trump was the great disruptor in chief because a) he bucked the Republicans In Name Only and b) he showed the American people how tight the alliances between the RINOs and Democrats really were — and are.
Why else would Trump spend his first months in office with a clean sweep of GOP control in both the House and Senate, but have to govern by executive order because Republicans wouldn’t work with him to pass his agenda?
Republican elites are Democrats. Republican leaders are soft and squishy on conservative principles. And another thing: Republicans entrenched stick together.
Has anyone been watching Tucker Carlson’s recent Fox News reports about the supposed tough-on-Democrats House Minority Leader McCarthy’s Washington, D.C., digs with pollster-to-the-liberals Frank Luntz? Apparently, the two are quite an item. They’re even tied at the apartment hip.
“Tucker Carlson reveals top House Republican lives with Google adviser Frank Luntz,” Fox News wrote.
“Kevin McCarthy has been staying in Frank Luntz’s apartment amid COVID: report,” The New York Post wrote.
Must be great pizza and beer times at the ye olde Penn Quarter swanky setting, what with all the behind-scenes giggling about those stupid MAGA types, those hayseed Donald Trump supporters. And then what a Quick Draw McGraw 180-return to the public eye.
“I’ve had it with … I’ve had it with her,” McCarthy said, during a hot mic moment in reference to his House comrade, Cheney.
But has he? Has he really?
The difference between Cheney and McCarthy is slight. On voting, McCarthy, according to GovTrack’s legislative metrics, is a purple triangle standing squarely between blue dot Democrats and red dot Republicans. He’s the guy straddling the ideological line. Cheney, meanwhile, is thick in Republican territory. The Chamber of Commerce rates her at 82%; the Club for Growth, at 65%; the League of Conservation Voters at 1%.
But the takeaway is this: Whether straddling the Dem-GOP line, or standing smack in the middle of Republican voting territory, the fact is when push comes to shove, strong conservative principles are tossed to the side. After all, standing in the middle of a field of red doesn’t make you red if the field itself is filled with purples.
Few Republicans on Capitol Hill actually fight for the constituents.
Most Republicans on Capitol Hill fight for the party.
On that, Cheney is to McCarthy is to, say, a Mitt Romney, is to, say, a Susan Collins is to, say, a Mitch McConnell is to, say — any number of Republicans in both House and Senate who go to Congress telling their voters they’ll fight, fight, fight for their interests, but within a year, join the millionaire’s club that curiously makes up the political class and then quickly forget their promises to the little people. Except during campaign season, that is.
Call it the John McCain double-face. He’s a guy who perfected the talk one way to voters, walk the other way in Congress. His many followers in office have taken up the slack his death left.
McCarthy may talk a good game against Cheney right now.
But remember: He’s doing it from the cushy surroundings of an apartment rented from his soft-on-liberals pal Luntz.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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