And thus endeth the intra-GOP scrum whose purpose I really never understood, and still don't:
Liz Cheney suddenly announced Monday that she is dropping her controversial Republican primary challenge in Wyoming against incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi.
Citing health concerns in her family, Cheney said in a statement released to Politico and other news outlets that the unspecified issues were the reason she was departing the race.
"Serious health issues have recently arisen in our family, and under the circumstances, I have decided to discontinue my campaign," the statement read. "My children and their futures were the motivation for our campaign and their health and well-being will always be my overriding priority."
Jim Geraghty asks the obvious question in today's Morning Jolt: "Is this ominous news for Dick Cheney's health? Lynne Cheney's?" Judging by the last sentence of her quote, it may be the health of one or more of her kids that has become an issue of overriding concern. Regardless, we should all keep the Cheney family in our prayers that whatever these health issues are, they are not and will not become serious and that all affected will be okay.
That said, I reiterate what I said above: I never understood why Liz Cheney was going after Mike Enzi in the first place. It was hardly a Tea Party vs. "The Establishment" clash, as Enzi has a lifetime ACU rating of 92.73, and his only "sins" in the last Congress were voting against a couple of DeMint amendments, one that would have eliminated some energy subsidies, the other allowing an "opt-out" for small businesses from compulsory "check off" programs that drive up their taxes to the benefit of larger businesses. Neither is anything like a raging, front-burner, fight-to-the-bitter-end TP cause, nor is Senator Enzi on any TP "public enemies" list of which I'm aware. He was first elected in 1996, and is completing his third term, so while as "blood" he's not exactly fresh, it isn't like he's been there forever, either. There just didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for a Liz Cheney insurgency. As a battle in the GOP civil war, it just didn't make any sense.
But an exercise in vanity, dynasticism, and personal ambition? Now you're getting warm. And it evidently was as transparent to a great many other Republicans as it was to me:
Cheney was reportedly trailing in the race and some state Republicans were critical of her decision to relocate from Virginia in 2012 to challenge the conservative Enzi.
She also had been engaged in a very public spat with her sister Mary, who is a married lesbian, by passionately opposing same-sex marriage.
The oldest daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, who earlier in his career represented a Wyoming district in the House, Liz Cheney embraced a neoconservative line on foreign policy that many considered out of synch with the libertarian-leaning wing of the Wyoming GOP.
Cheney, a lawyer who once served in the U.S. State Department during the administration of President George W. Bush, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So (1) Liz was a "carpet-bagger," and (2) she was looking for any rationale for a primary challenge she could find against the popular conservative Enzi and could muster so little originality that she wound up leeching off both her father's name and his politicoideological legacy. Which makes her clashing with her lesbo sister more than a little ironic, given that the former veep has endorsed sodomarriage. If the rationale for her candidacy was to rebuild the Senate GOP's neocon wing using her dad's name and accomplishments, I'd have thought she'd leave her sister's sexual deviancy alone, especially as one would have to know that that is what the media would endlessly obsess on.
The Liz Cheney campaign has all the hallmarks of ill-considered impulsiveness that would not have ended well. Whatever her reasons, I'm glad she wised up and pulled the plug.
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