I hear a backdraft of warnings that Rep. Liz Cheney, recently defenestrated from the clown house which is the House GOP caucus, could ride her fame and adulation with the center and the left all the way to the White House. So stop with all the wild praise of Liz Cheney! Because it could in fact saddle us with a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary as President.

First of all, I don’t see anyone wildly praising Liz Cheney, white washing her record of deeply awful policies or really anything else. Some folks, who shall remain nameless, seem to have a great desire to manufacture this deeply frivolous caricature person for their own ends. But as far as I can see that person does not exist.

What I see are a lot of people who have a clear sense of who Cheney is but are giving her grudging credit for making a stand, at an apparently high political and professional cost, not even so much for what is “right” but simply for what is reality. The election was not stolen. Donald Trump is not the rightful President. The insurrection did in fact happen and insurrections are bad. Very bad. When the republic is in imminent peril we shouldn’t be creating litmus tests for who is allowed to defend it. Roosevelt and Churchill made common cause with Stalin to defeat Hitler. None of this is complicated.

But could Cheney ride her newfound political celebrity to the presidency, with all her odious politics and policies in tow? The short answer is no. Unfortunately for Cheney the long answer is also no. And in fact the very long and long-term answer is also no.

Let’s discuss this.

Continue reading “Will Liz Cheney Ride Fame to the Presidency?” →

One of the hearings today on Capitol Hill was with former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. This was another Big Lie/January 6th hearing. And Rosen caught a lot of grief for refusing to discuss what happened during his January 3rd meeting with President Trump. Rosen seemed to be hinting at assertions of privilege but wouldn’t quite say why he was refusing. A logical read is that Rosen – who after all got the acting gig because Trump thought he was reliable – was still covering for Trump. But it’s not the only possible explanation, nor the most interesting one.

Let’s recall that ex-Presidents have zero privileges to assert as President. They still have lawyer-client privilege for communications in their personal capacity during their presidency. But they have zero power to assert any of the privileges unique to presidents. Only the current President can do that, i.e., Joe Biden. In practice, President’s have long deferred to former Presidents in decisions over privilege for a variety of reasons. But it is entirely the current President’s call. Rosen said he was operating under the guidance of the current DOJ. So let’s pull that thread and see where it might lead.

Continue reading “Is the DOJ Trying to Protect a Big Lie Investigation?” →