An Opportunity to Demonstrate Bold Leadership

Commentary

CHENEY “OUT,” STEFANIK “IN,” it appears today, is the forecasted outcome in a vote to take place in the House on Wednesday. 

Most people agree, it’s time for Liz Cheney to go.  At issue is her role as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, an important leadership position that calls for her to shape key messaging and supports House GOP priorities to a public.  Important with an agenda to take back the House in 2022. Republicans cannot afford to have someone dividing the party over Trump, who will be a factor in the future.

Her vote to impeach President Trump and continued criticism of him have angered Trump supporters.  They doubt that she will spur the level of enthusiasm and confidence required in the approach of the midterms.

The news that she secretly organized an op-ed in the Washington Post by ten living defense secretaries, including her father, in an attack on Trump doesn’t help her cause.

STEFANIK CAMPAIGNING WITH TRUMP
(Courtesy Adirondack Daily Enterprise)

Is Rep. Elise Stefanik the right person to replace Cheney?  As one might expect, leftist columnist Peggy Noonan believes House members will be making a mistake.  To Noonan, it matters not that Stefanik is a capable woman; but they’re removing a woman with principles.

“(Once) touted as a future House Speaker,” noted Ally Mutnick in Politico of Cheney, “now, it’s impossible to call her anything other than an underdog in her own congressional seat,“ referring to her support in Wyoming as “a remarkable fall from grace.”

Streiff, writing at Red State compiled several pages of negative information on Stefanik’s record in Congress, but had the ethics to say, “Where do you think I got this research?  What makes me wonder what’s happening is that the left is working overtime to sandbag Stefanik, even though her voting record indicates they should be happy.  Who are they trying to convince that she’s someone they don’t like? Them? Or us?   He referred to it as ‘this kind of crap.’”

“For Republicans to demonstrate spine against the Democrats, we naturally and rightly gravitate toward those who finally show the will to show it,” wrote Nick Arama in Red State.

Although Tony Perkins voiced concern over Stefanik’s voting record compared to that of Cheney on issues he watches over studiously, he understands that “conservative voters want bold leaders who will pursue an aggressive conservative agenda, like what is outlined in the GOP Party platform.  (Cheney’s) distracting feud with the former president and his supporters is not only unnecessary; it also puts the GOP’s ability to retake the House at risk.”

Personally, I have been impressed with Stefanik, a New York Republican, and I’ve heard the views of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Representatives Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, all of whom I respect; gentlemen who know what’s at stake in 2022.

Those members up for reelection in 2022 would be wise to support Stefanik in Wednesday’s vote to oust Cheney.

Now, more than ever … May God continue to bless the United States of America