We hope this is not another case in which some Democrats are scared of their own shadow and want to take an oddly “conservative approach.” We have a Washington Post report this morning that states there are factions of the Select Committee that want to focus more on Capitol security (which almost hurts to read) than the origins of the attack. At the same time, Liz Cheney is the leading voice arguing that they go directly at the one person who is the biggest threat to what happens inside the Capitol, Donald Trump.
From the Washington Post:
“Rep. Cheney’s view is that security at the Capitol is a critical part of the investigation, but the Capitol didn’t attack itself,” said Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Cheney.
Seems self-evident. But the Post goes on to say that some Democrats are reticent about placing Trump at the center and making him the focus, while Cheney is the person aggressively pushing the investigation to its most logical target. Perhaps the dynamic owes something to the fact that Cheney, having already pitted herself against the entire MAGA movement, is the freest to go big or go home. She is also right.
Cheney’s unsparing and legal-minded approach toward Trump and the attack on the Capitol has distinguished her work on the panel. Colleagues say the lawyer by training is the most well-read and prepared lawmaker on the panel. Of the nine members, she has assumed the most aggressive posture toward the former president.
Cheney understands the weight of the moment and what’s at stake. Yet again we find ourselves dearly hoping that the Democrats aren’t getting gun shy about the explosive evidence they have and how much it will enrage the MAGAs. Why are some Democrats more afraid than Cheney?
Regardless:
“Cheney has wanted to make sure we keep the focus on Trump and the political effort to overthrow Biden’s majority in the electoral college and to attack the peaceful transfer of power,” a committee member said.
Good. Because we were of the impression that was the entire point when Pelosi put the Select Committee together, to investigate a nation-threatening event that we knew at the time had to be traceable back to Trump.
The article goes on to say that Trump considers Cheney his biggest adversary, which is to say he recognizes that she might be the one most able to destroy him. Most Bush Republicans have long since turned into MAGAs but there is still a fraction of formerly mainstream Republicans around that, together with the Democrats, gives Cheney more credibility and penetrating power with the American body politic than the rest of the Committee combined. After all, she is a “Cheney,” and until Trump, no name could be more “Republican” than Cheney.
We will argue with Cheney until the end of time on the proper levels of taxation, regulatory structure – especially for extraction industries, defense spending, and social spending, but we cannot get to that argument unless Cheney, together with the Democrats, ensures we have a democracy in which to hold those arguments. Until then, I’m a Cheney-Democrat.
Jason Miciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, while also studying scientific philosophy, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.