OPINION:
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
That idiom, a version of which dates back to 1697, might be sexist, but it’s a spot-on description of lame duck Liz Cheney, who following her landslide loss in the Aug. 16 Wyoming Republican congressional primary became Sore Loser Liz.
She’s now threatening to become GOP Suicide Bomber, Liz. Or at least a latter-day Lizzie Borden, with a political ax to grind, intent on taking 40 whacks at any Republican candidate this fall who has the temerity to pledge continued allegiance to former President Donald Trump.
This is the loathsome Lincoln Project in drag.
The soon-to-be-former lawmaker raised a whopping $15 million for her failed primary bid for a fourth term but spent only about half of it. For that $7 million-plus spent, Ms. Cheney got fewer than 50,000 votes—just 28.9% of the total—and lost 2.3 to 1. (For context, that $15 million was five times more than the $3 million she raised and spent en route to winning 70% of the vote for her third term in November 2020.)
Lame Duck Liz’s precipitous fall from favor in the eyes of GOP voters in Wyoming can be traced directly to her monomaniacal political jihad against Mr. Trump, a fellow Republican, since the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot that she falsely blames on him. In so doing, Ms. Cheney has given considerable aid and comfort to left-wing Democrats and cover smoke to the January 6 committee’s Stalinist show trial.
“This primary election is over, but now the real work begins,” Ms. Cheney said in her ungracious Aug. 16 concession speech, in a shot across her party’s bow.
“I have said I will do whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is never anywhere near the Oval Office, and I mean it,” Sore Loser Liz added.
In a roundabout way, it all reminded us of then-Rep. Morris Udall’s quip after he lost his bid to become the 1976 Democratic presidential nominee: “The voters have spoken — the bastards.” The difference is that the Arizona Democrat was joking. Ms. Cheney clearly is not.
Now, like the proverbial spoiled-brat kid who takes his bat and ball and goes home if he doesn’t get to play first base, Sore Loser Liz is now vowing to use her enormous war chest not only to thwart any attempt at a comeback by Mr. Trump, but also to defeat any Republican who won’t repudiate him, or more specifically, any Republican who won’t unequivocally reject the former president’s claim that the 2020 election was “rigged.”
On ABC’s “This Week” on Aug. 21, Ms. Cheney self-righteously averred that she’s “sad about where my party is.” She expressed disappointment that “so many people have failed” what she declares is the “great moral test” of upholding democracy.
“[W]e’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country,” she said, in effect indirectly criticizing GOP primary voters for nominating candidates not to her liking. “And I’m going to work against those people. I’m going to work to support their opponents. I think it matters that much.”
The most puzzling aspect of Ms. Cheney’s vendetta against Mr. Trump is the fact that they are not that far apart ideologically. Ms. Cheney—who arrived in Congress in 2017, the same year Mr. Trump moved into the White House—voted nearly 93% of the time with him, according to FiveThirtyEight.com.
Whatever else you can say about Ms. Cheney, she’s not a RINO, but Trump Derangement Syndrome has apparently turned her into a political suicide bomber.
She apparently doesn’t care if her campaigning against fellow Republicans helps elect Democrats in the process, enabling them to retain control of Congress and ram through their far-left agenda. (It goes without saying that no disgruntled Democrat would ever do the reverse.)
So, if Ms. Cheney insists on being a childish sore loser, we’re tempted to invoke a schoolyard taunt: Don’t go away mad, Liz, just go away.
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