Liz Cheney in the spotlight
And yes, the Democrats should let her be the show
In the days following January 6, 2021, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), stalwart conservative, distributed a memo to her GOP colleagues outlining the constitutional reasoning for impeaching Donald Trump. It was hardly odd. In the days after the violent attack on the Capitol, dozens of conservatives had lashed out what they saw as Donald Trump feeding his narcissitic need for importance and power more than actually having an argument about a “stolen election”.
And the stolen election story had more or less died when, after 60 plus cases over alleged election fraud failed for lack of evidence, the Supreme Court delivered the coup de grace on December 11, 20201. Revelations of Donald Trump calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” days before the January 6, 2021 made it clear that Trump’s lust for power was vampirian. And when faced with a vampire, one needs an Abraham van Helsing.
When Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy misplayed his hand in appointing Republican members to the Select Committee (Speaker Nancy Pelosi objected to Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) who openly stated his intent to disrupt the Committee’s proceeding, and Rep. Jim Jordan R-OH), who is actually a person of interest in January 6th attack), he found himself with 2 political enemies, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), representing the Republican side. The duo are only enemies in the political sense - ideologically they are stalwart conservatives and their only sin is in opposing Donald Trump openly.
Little has been said or written much about who is on the Committee on the Democratic side — largely due to the political genius of Nancy Pelosi.
The Chair, Rep. Bennie Thomson (D-MS), is a reserved and circumspect man with policy expertise in national security. Press releases are not a top priority for him.
Three other members on the committee have national security/defense policy bona fides. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), and Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA). And of the 7 Democrats on the Committee, 3 have impeachment experience — Schiff, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)2, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)3. And 3 of them sit on House Administration — Lofgren, Raskin, and Rep. Peter Aguilar (D-CA). Their biggest commonality is their impeccable reputations.
Despite that, four of them are eminently attackable by the Right for taking part in a “partisan witchhunt” — Schiff, Raskin, Lofgren, and Thompson (purely due to being Chair).
And it’s only a matter of time before all 7 are subjected to the Right’s Politics of Delegitimization in one way or another. Once they go after Luria, a 20 year veteran of the U.S. Navy, or Murphy, a Blue Dog Democrat born in Vietnam, the foregoing will be proved.
Cheney seems poised to take on the well-organized and broad conspiracy behind the January 6th attacks4. Letting her take the lead during public hearings makes for good politics and partisan advantage. Attacks on her by Republicans will seem specious, disingenuous, and cannabalistic. And the Democrats can just shrug and point to her voting record.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._Pennsylvania
Schiff and Raskin were both House managers in Trump’s Second Impeachment and Schiff was a House manager in Trump’s First Impeachment.
Lofgren was a congressional staff aide for Rep. Don Edwards on the Nixon Impeachment
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/politics/january-6-committee-investigation-liz-cheney/index.html