Well, there is a bit of good news this week. Liz Cheney will probably be booted from her position as Chair of the Republican Conference. It’s a long time coming—and it was totally avoidable on Cheney’s part. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut. You don’t need to respond to everything, Liz. You’re one of the faces of the GOP, but your job is mainly to raise money and get your people elected and re-elected. She failed at both. She’s been miserable on the former and her trust balance ran to zero when she backed a challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). That’s not what you do in that position. To make matters worse, the would-be Massie Challenger turned out to be a racist. The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway has been very vocal and on point regarding the issues facing Liz. And her pervasive need to bash Trump only pushed her closer to the edge of a political precipice.
Is Elise Stefanik a die-hard Trumpy? No. She voted against the 2017 Trump tax cuts. She had to; she’s from New York. What few Republicans we have in the Northeast had to vote against the SALT caps. Yet, Stefanik’s defense of Trump during the impeachment hoax and its related theatrics on the Hill was excellent. She’s seen as a rising star in the party, whereas Cheney is viewed as the old order. And now, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is formally backing Stefanik replacing Liz. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), another top House Republican, had already backed Stefanik’s bid to replace Cheney (via NYT):
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, on Sunday officially endorsed Representative Elise Stefanik in her bid to oust the No. 3 House Republican, Representative Liz Cheney, who has hemorrhaged support over her repudiation of former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about election fraud.
“Yes, I do,” Mr. McCarthy told the Fox News host Maria Bartiromo when she asked whether he supported Ms. Stefanik’s push to become the Republican conference chairwoman.
“We need to be united, and that starts with leadership,” Mr. McCarthy said. “That’s why we will have a vote next week.”
The endorsement from Mr. McCarthy — who had been working behind the scenes on Ms. Stefanik’s behalf for days — came after Mr. Trump and Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, endorsed Ms. Stefanik.
If you are still writing hot takes pretending that Cheney is in trouble because of a lack of fealty to Trump, you might want to step out of your bubble. Cheney has already survived a vote based on impeachment. This time, it’s about the fact that she sucks at her job. https://t.co/ER7sIkPyme
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) May 9, 2021
So, Liz is a dead woman walking. Those are the three words that can best describe her situation. Cheney isn’t even making phone calls and cobbling together votes to save herself. She knows she’s cooked. Now, the one downside to slaying Liz is that we’re going to be subjected to endless lectures about the end of conservative from people who don’t know any. CNN, MSNBC, and others have already done segments about how Liz being booted is the end of the GOP or something. We’re about to enter the ‘end of conservatism’ merry-go-round again—and it’s always wrong. I remember in 2008 that we were seeing the end of conservatism. Two years later the Tea Party came onto the scene and the 2010 midterms were a red wave. Over seventy million Republican voters are going to what—become Democrats. Please. We’re not going away. The same ‘end of the GOP’ talk was peddled after Watergate. It also never happened. Ronald Reagan was elected in a landslide win in 1980.
The only person who is sure to 'end' in the foreseeable future is Liz Cheney serving as chair of the GOP conference.
The recall vote is set for Wednesday.
???? BREAKING: @GOPLeader has sent a letter about recalling @Liz_Cheney.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 10, 2021
"Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it’s clear that we need to make a change. As such, you should anticipate a vote on recalling the Conference Chair this Wednesday.” pic.twitter.com/P0Euyl2wM3