And the walls come a-tumblin’ down
Yesterday it was stalwart conservative former GOP House leadership maven Liz Cheney came out in an interview came out and announced that she was voting for and endorsing Kamala Harris. And now today, in an interview in Texas, Liz announced that The Bug Kahuna, her father, Former Beorge W Bush Vice President would also be backing and voting for Harris.
Just let this sink in for a moment. Dick Cheney is a former defense secretary as well as White House Chief of Staff. He has been in the GOP power structure for more than 30 years. If not an architect, he was a contributing editor to what became known as The Reagan-Bush conservatism. If you, your father, or your grandfather voted for Reagan, George HW Bush, or George W Bush, Dick Cheney was lurking in the background. If I had told you 16 years ago that in September of 2024, Dick and Liz Cheney would both be publicly backing Kamala Harris, you would have called for an intervention.
This isn’t a scaffold in the Abandonment Permission Structure, this is more like The Eifel Tower of abandonment permission. And it’s critical because it can come into play in so many ways.
First, when you have the Chair Emeritus of the modern Republican Party makes an official statement through his daughter, all the shackles are off, they don’t come any higher than that. It will be interesting to see if other high up moderate conservatives such as Jeff Flake, Mark Short, Tubby the Ewok, and even Mike Pence put their big boy pants on and finally make the clean break.
More importantly than that, is the fact that it’s what Cheney is not saying that’s so important. Cheney doesn’t have to say anything, just letting it be known what’s he’s doing is enough. You’ve heard me talk about Legacy Republicans, they vote GOP because their daddy’s, granddaddy’s and great-granddaddy’s all voted for the GOP. It’s in the blood? Well, the guy who helped to create the conservatism they all voted for is explicitly telling them that even he is taking a lifeboat off of this death cruise. So, why the hell should they stick around?
And here’s the closer. When Liz Cheney jumped off the MAGA Toon Trolley and joined the J6 Committee, she did it knowing that any future battles to try to save the GOP would have to be fought from outside.
Dick Cheney’s unspoken message is much more stark. If one of the creators of the Reagan-Bush conservatism is jumping ship, then there is no Reagan-Bush conservatism left to save. They might keep the name Republican Party for convenience, but they are going to have to build their own brand of conservatism for the 21st century. The Reagan-Bush brand of conservatism is as dead as Paddy’s Pig.
And Liz Cheney is putting her money where her mouth is. She also announced today that she’s endorsing, and will be campaigning with Democratic Senate challenger Colin Allred in his fight to unseat all purpose scumbag Ted Cruz. Hell, you gotta start somewhere. As the Chinese say, A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.
A Clarification  There seems to be some confusion about the intent or meaning of my title. The meaning was clear in my mind. The title means that it was Trump who called out the GOP Big Guns Liz and Dick Cheney, and turned them into Harris supporters by his total disqualification for office. I apologize for any confusion.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
Before we bemoan the way we are now on the same side as the Cheneys, just remember some cliches are cliches because of the truth they encapsulate.
‘The enemy of our enemy is our friend’ and
‘We fight our battles with the army we have, not the army we wish we had’.
And, of course, they’ve come to our side. We remain right, they admit they were wrong.
I’ve had my TV muted much of the day but when I saw this banner I had to keep double checking to see if my eyes were deceiving me. I kept thinking we already knew Liz had endorsed Harris and was going to vote for her. This isn’t really “headline news today” but THIS accouncement she’s made on her father’s behalf is stunning. Ole Dick must be near death and like Lee Atwater realizing he’s got a lot to atone for and right after admitting his sins comes the redemption effort to make up for at least some of the damage.
Ok, so his motives may not be entirely pure because he’d still want a GOP like the one he helped fashioned but at least it was a sane one. It bullied its way to getting more than what it should have but even he realized there were limits to how hard to push. No matter. This his big. Or “bigly” stuff. And Liz campaigning for Alread? Wow. Cruz and the GOP are probably freaking the f**k out because he and the GOP are going to have to expend some serious resources in freaking Texas! It might not be enough to save Cruz this time either.
I’m not going to go nuts and say Texas is in play but if the Cruz/Alred race is close the GOP including Trump is going to have to spend some time and money there just to make sure Trump holds Texas.
So, I read the title of this piece and wondered what asinine ploy trump was pondering. Turns out the answer….who knows? This article covered, in its entirety, what Dick and Liz are doing-voting for V.P. Harris. That is all well and good. I knew Liz was going to support Harris and I am somewhat surprised Dick is-I figured he’d just vote the down ballot races.
Did you perhaps put this title on the wrong piece Joseph? I sure as all get out did not see any big guns being hauled out by mango man.
“Did you perhaps put this title on the wrong piece Joseph? I sure as all get out did not see any big guns being hauled out by mango man.”
Nor did I. Another click-bait title?
Read my response below…
It’s Murf my friend, and the title standsThe Cheney’s ARE the Big Guns Trump called out for Harris by his lame bullshit… 😉
I had to laugh my ass off today listening to Liz during an interview. She paused and said I’m going to try and say this in an acceptable way: Trump is a misogynistic pig! God that was funny.
I live in what is considered a moderate Republican district in Texas. this is a signal to a lot of moderate Republicans that they can start abandoning the crazy right wing. Paxton and his jack booted thugs throwing 80 year old women out of their houses in their nightgowns. Abbott targeting all the remaining moderate Republicans in the state. Darth Cheney is showing them that it is okay because Cheney hates chaos. and trump is chaos.
YEAH YEAH … good piece MURPHY but you REALLY need another header:
like: TRUMP forced CHENEYS off his sinking Titanic ..
LUCKILY they are in a LIFEBOAT … and can keep afloat and helping us.
PS here is DICK CHENEY’s statement