Politics - News Analysis

Matt Gaetz Wants Liz Cheney Out, Cheney Responds by Teasing Gaetz About Wearing Makeup

The Washington Examiner has a great report coming out of Wyoming on the fallout from Liz Cheney’s decision to vote yes on the impeachment of Donald Trump and her justification, namely, that he deserved it after inciting a riot. Yesterday we noted that Liz Cheney, while hardly a Democrat or even a centrist, was actually taking a fairly courageous position that will impact whether she is reelected or not as Wyoming’s one House member.

The Wyoming GOP is strongly MAGA (though the Cheney name is awfully powerful), and has strongly criticized Cheney. Thus it is that Matt Gaetz appointed himself to go to Wyoming and rub Cheney’s nose in her vote, likely on behalf of the Trumps. It matters beyond Cheney. Despite having one House member, Wyoming also has two senators, enough to wipe out California’s vote, 550K people versus 40 million – that’s the United States. The Trumps desperately want to keep all three positions solidly MAGA, thus Gaetz’s trip.

It also might be about Gaetz attempting to get a leadership position:

In a tweet promoting the event, Gaetz said, “I do not want her job. I unequivocally am not seeking a position in House Leadership. I also know Wyoming can do better.”

Well, Matt, if she’s deposed from House leadership, it frees up a position for House leadership and you’re well aware of that.

Gaetz has to be a little careful. One only has so much political capital to use as ammunition in things like this. This is a big-time push, a situation where one party is going to come out on top, not the other. In other words, loser loses, and there will not be room for both. If GOP leadership decides it’s too embarrassing to lose one of the very few women, a powerful woman, especially coupled with a Gaetz push for the position, it will negate much of Gaetz’s voice. Leadership will have chosen Cheney and some freedom over the MAGA cult

We don’t know who will win, we only know that Cheney recognizes that she’s out on a limb and her office fired quite a shot in this battle:

According to the report, a spokesperson for Cheney, noting Gaetz is coming to Wyoming for an anti-Cheney rally, stated for the congresswoman, “Rep. Gaetz can leave his beauty bag at home. In Wyoming, the men don’t wear make-up.”

Normally we would say that going after how someone looks or chooses to look is their personal business and shouldn’t be mocked. Even Gaetz. That’s a dangerous road and we saw how it played out over the weekend with Jen Psaki.

But, in this circumstance, Gaetz is coming to Cheney’s turf to bump out Cheney. Coming from the West, we do kind of know what her spokesperson is doing here and it isn’t so much mocking Gaetz as it is a message to Wyoming voters and the Wyoming GOP. “He is not one of you. He’s a big-time elitist from the Florida coast and you’re getting played.”

It is actually a message intended to have a political impact and likely will have a political impact, so it’s not so much mocking Gaetz. It is also harmless compared to the mention of something really shady like … Nestor.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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