Cheney during a recent Jan. 6 committee hearing | Photo via CSPAN.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 26, 2022 | The nation isn’t talking much about who’ll be running in the 2024 presidential election.
Instead, we’re concentrating on what happened on January 6.
Donald Trump keeps alive the hope he might run again for president, thinking that a sitting president might be harder to pin any charges on.
If former President Trump doesn’t run, who might? The one name you hear most often is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Yet some think he might carry as much baggage as Mr. Trump did with his strong rightist views. Overall in general, there aren’t any obvious contenders right now, as after all, that campaign is more than two-plus years away.
Yet on the GOP side, there seems to be emerging one particular person who, though not mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, is showing incredible signs of leadership.
That person is Liz Cheney, the (sole) representative from Wyoming to the U.S. House. She has been a congresswoman since 2017 and is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Today she is in the spotlight as the vice chair of the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. She stands out as one of only two Republicans to serve on that committee, and has great visibility, intelligence, determination and restraint in questioning witnesses before that group.
One gets the feeling that Ms. Cheney has a deep appreciation of the American government, and is deeply troubled by Mr. Trump’s failures on January 6. Yet this is the same Ms. Cheney who backed many of the Trump Administration ideas before Congress. That makes her deep-felt views on what the president did ever so revealing and remarkable.
In effect, Liz Cheney is showing nothing less than leadership. One feels she is well-grounded in her efforts, is making the right call, could set our country straight, and exhibits the qualities we want in leaders.
Ms. Cheney was born in Madison, Wis. when her father was a student at the University of Wisconsin. She graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Colorado College, her mother’s alma mater, where she wrote her senior thesis, “The Evolution of Presidential War Powers.” She received her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1996. Later she worked in private practice and then for the State Department for five years and the United States Agency for International Development. After 1993, she took a job at Armitage Associates LLP, the consulting firm founded by Richard Armitage, then a former Defense Department official and later the Deputy Secretary of State. She and her husband, Phil Perry, have five children and live in Wilson, Wyoming.
One can see that she has had responsible positions in government, making her easily qualified to be sitting in Congress, where she was first elected in 2016 to the U.S. House.
Wyoming flag
Yet this political year she is facing a tough challenge in the Republican primary, which will be on August 9. Her opponent, Harriet Hageman, is the only candidate in Wyoming endorsed by a vindictive Donald Trump. Polls show Ms. Cheney running significantly behind her opponent.
Remember, Wyoming is our least populated state, with only 581,348 (2020) people. Only 110,575 votes were cast in the 2020 Republican primary. Ms. Cheney could easily lose this race, all because she is leading a valiant effort to show the American people how Donald Trump was the man most responsible for a never-before-seen insurrection against our Capitol and our nation.
Possible? Ms. Cheney might lose the Wyoming primary, but gain the trust of the nation? Could she be the next presidential candidate of a newly-enlightened Republican Party?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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