As a Founding Member of the Honorary Fellows of the John F. Kennedy Library, today I proudly nominated Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney (R-WY) for the Profile in Courage award: “As Vice Chair of the January 6 Committee investigating Trump’s coup to stop the peaceful transfer of power, Congresswoman Cheney put country over ambition.”
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I second the nomination! She clearly qualifies as putting her political career in jeopardy to stand up for what is right.
Probably the only Wyoming Republican or someone with her surname I would vote for if I lived in that state or give money too. Her speech at the Reagan Foundation was honestly inspiring and I do hope she runs for president in 2024 just so she can continue to hammer away at Trump and his pretenders in the primary.
https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-cheney-men-running-the-world-not-going-that-well-reagan-library-2022-6?amp
Let’s not get carried away — Ms. Cheney is at least reminiscent of the proverbial broken clock that tells the correct time twice a day.
Ms. Cheney has spent a lifetime advancing the horrific GOP agenda and fighting ALL the Democratic attempts improve America.
Ms. Cheney:
I suggest that it is because of people like Liz Cheney that America is so divided today. Ms. Cheney has been gaslighting the public, denying science, and advancing outright lies for as long as she’s been in public life.
The fact that Ms. Cheney faces a withering attack from today’s GOP shows the full extent of the depravity of the criminal conspiracy that now controls today’s GOP.
It does NOT show that Ms. Cheney is to be admired.
We are admiring her for THIS. IIRC JFK’s original book of this title included examples of politicians who in addition to defying their party or constituents also acted against the rest of their record. No doubt Liz Cheney is a conservative Republican, but that’s not why she deserves a PiC. Why must we entirely love or entirely hate someone? This is the same logic that says we can’t honor and celebrate historical figures for their contributions to the cause of liberty because they owned slaves. To everything there is a season – a time to praise and a time to criticize. A PiC is about something very specific; it is not approval of one’s entire record.
The JFK book was published in 1956. The most recent of the eight figures identified in the book — Robert Taft — died in 1953. The book was NOT a paean to any living and active politician.
I measure a public figure by the totality of their record. As I attempted to convey in my “broken clock” metaphor, it is not unusual for despicable officials to occasionally offer a reasonable position.
I am not ready to award ANYBODY a medal because they state the obvious truth that nobody is above the law.
I agree that it is a fallacy to measure a public figure of one era by the standards of another. It is a mistake to dismiss Thomas Jefferson as a racist and misogynist because his behavior does not measure up to the political correctness of 2022.
That’s not what’s happening here. Ms. Cheney is an active politician TODAY. She has a long record of opposing everything that Democrats stand for TODAY.
I’m glad that Ms. Cheney is aggressively asserting the rule of law. I’m disgusted that we think this is “courageous”.
She is still an active Republican. She is still a vote for Mitch McConnell. She is still a vote against any Democratic proposals, including:
I stand by refusal to award Ms. Cheney any awards.
When she’s been dead and buried for a decade or so, I doubt that many historians will describe her as “courageous”.
I am actually quite confident that historians will describe her actions IN THIS CONTEXT as courageous. Again, PiCs are for very specific acts and I’m pretty sure other such nominations bear me out.
I suppose we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
In the context of Watergate, John Dean was a sleaze. He was slightly less sleazy than H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, but still a sleaze. Mike Pence is, by the same standard, more “courageous” than Mark Meadows. I do not characterize John Dean nor Mike Pence as “courageous”.
I see little value in observing that one rotting and stinking fish in a barrel is less odiferous than the rest.
Ms. Cheney could make a positive impression on me by announcing her departure from the Republican Party.
She could make another positive impression by apologizing for her years of willfully ignorant climate change denial and outright deception about the Affordable Care Act.
Ms. Cheney could then announce a new-found commitment to valuing science and truth in forming her policy positions.
AFTER Ms. Cheney takes those steps, then I’ll reconsider my opinion about her courage.
John Dean is a hero in my book!
I remember it, I was an adult when it happened. I watched the Watergate hearings as they unfolding just as we are watching the Jan 6 hearings unfold today.
Yes, John Dean ultimately did the right thing.
It is, nevertheless, worth remembering that he was indicted and convicted of Obstruction of Justice for his role in the coverup, and served four months in prison as a result.
Are you familiar with either of this first two books (“Blind Ambition”, 1976 and “Lost Honor”, 1982)?
I agree that he has redeemed after seeing the error of his ways. Still, I think Mr. Dean himself would take issue with characterizing his role in Watergate as “heroic”.
So is Joe Manchin on those issues and you have defended his presence as critical to our majority in the past. I’ll add as a House member she is not voting for McConnell and I would not be surprised if she refused to vote for McCarthy who stood by as MAGA Republicans ousted her from the leadership. I think any Republican who voted for impeachment was courageous and deserves our thanks as patriots. I think her work on this committee has been masterful. I also suspect she won’t be voting in the next Congress although I am rooting for her to win.
Heh — I was thinking of her as “Senator Cheney”, and of course I’m mistaken about that.
Tucker Carlson: 3 million viewers
Stanley Cup Final 2022: 5 m
America’s Got Talent: 6 m
Monday Night Football: 11 m
Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony at a short-notice, daytime, Congressional hearing: 13 MILLION Americans watched!
That’s astounding!
I’m with Fred. Cheney’s more than a broken clock. She’s a Rolex (to use a Republicanesque analogy).
I am guardedly optimistic that DoJ and the several states will investigate, prosecute, convict and punish the leaders of this insurrection. Part of that punishment is incarceration and part is stripping the entire criminal conspiracy of the cash that is, after all, its primary motivation (I don’t believe that any of these thugs has the moral fiber to actually STAND for anything besides venal greed).
In the aftermath of that, when America is hopefully no longer facing the armed overthrow of our government, I look forward to a friendly revisiting of our collective feelings about Ms. Cheney.
Since she will still be doing all in her power to stop access to contraception, gay marriage, gun control, climate change, and government-sponsored single-payer health care, I suspect I will be less lonely in my refusal to celebrate her “courage”.
As I approach my seventieth birthday, I wonder if anybody else is paying attention to another looming catastrophe — our under-funded Social Security/Medicare system.
I suspect that, like in so many other things, Ms. Cheney will join whatever Republicans are left in doing everything possible to sabotage any and every effort to stabilize Social Security and Medicare.
Until Trump is behind bars, or buried beneath a headstone after a natural death, the overthrow of our government is at Def Con 1. I am not attempting to get dramatic. Watch the Wyoming U.S. House Republican Debate to look into the minds of Republicans. Short Version
A significant number of American citizens are convinced that Trump is their true president, savior, hero and that those who oppose Trump are evil.
Agreed. I am appalled that Ms. Cheney is even bothering with today’s Wyoming GOP.
America has tens of millions of willfully ignorant deplorable bigots who deny simple and obvious facts.
Each and every person who self-identifies with today’s GOP is signing up for sedition, insurrection, fascism, and viciously brutal prejudice.
The problem won’t be solved by putting Donald Trump behind bars. It is today’s GOP that must be dissolved.
I think it shows genuine courage and that is what the award is ultimately about. Courage to condemn while she is still in office and courage to run for re-election as someone who is masterfully adept at challenging Trump and the Big Lie.
You are usually on the side of a bigger tent and recognize we need the Manchins and Sinemas to stay in a majority, similarly, we may need the Cheney’s and Kinzinger’s to stay a democracy.
I appreciate her support and I applaud her stance against the Big Lie.
I’m just not ready to award her a “Profile in Courage”.
She is for gay marriage now and also apologized in her speech to the Reagan Library for engaging in vitriolic partisanship. I have no doubt she remains as she described herself in the same speech as a pro-life, pro-second amendment, and pro tax cut, limited government, defense hawk.
The choice is between someone who voted to impeach Trump and continues to masterfully hold him and his minions accountable in defense of saving constitutional democracy and a Trump acolyte who is spreading the big lie. A down the line Democrat who agreed with you on every position would have no prayer in Wyoming.
So I am rooting for her to upset her primary challenger and continue to stand up for truth on the committee. Her work on it is far more legacy defining than her votes in Congress. Unlike Adam Kinzinger another anti-Trump conservative I admire, she has the guts to run for re-election. If FDR could work with Joseph Stalin, surely our coalition is big enough to include Liz Cheney-at leash until the emergency passes.
I completely concur with including her until the emergency passes.
So far as I know, FDR did not nominate Joseph Stalin for any international awards.
I do not support extending a “Profile in Courage” award to her.
Surely there is a middle ground between “working with” and “worshipping”.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.