When an incumbent politician loses re-election by nearly 40 points, that’s supposed to be the end of their political career.
But these days career politicians in both parties couldn’t care less about the will of the people and believe they know better.
And now Democrats and Never-Trumpers are colluding on a scheme to hand Liz Cheney this powerful position.
As has been repeated over and over again for nearly two weeks now, the 2022 Midterms didn’t go as Republicans planned.
With votes still being counted – for some ungodly reason – in many races, all indications are that Democrats will retain the slimmest possible majority in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie, and Republicans will take the House majority.
But just how big Republicans’ House majority will end up being is still to be determined – after all, a Democrat House majority hasn’t actually been mathematically eliminated yet.
In fact, some analysts believe that Republicans could be staring down the barrel at just a one-seat majority in the new Congress.
Such a slim margin of error obviously doesn’t do Republicans any favors, but it certainly complicates House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) efforts to obtain the 218 votes needed to become the next Speaker of the House.
With such a small majority, Democrats could theoretically pull off a scheme to install their own Speaker of the House, should Republicans be split between the establishment backing McCarthy and the conservative House Freedom Caucus demanding more principled leadership.
And that fact certainly isn’t lost on Democrats, as they’re now apparently floating the idea of putting forward soon-to-be-former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney as Speaker, in the hopes they could attract enough Republicans to give her the 218 votes needed.
“Why not Liz Cheney as a transition Speaker of the House,” former Obama field organizer Zack Czajkowski wrote on Twitter. “It’ll piss off both Democrats and Republicans. She’s a responsible adult with a conservative voting record, a proven ability to work across the aisle, and most importantly has unflappable [moral] courage under pressure.”
The hilarity of a radical left-wing Democrat claiming any member of the Cheney political dynasty has “a conservative voting record” and “unflappable moral courage” aside, the plan isn’t as “out there” as it may seem.
The Constitution does not require the Speaker of the House to be a sitting Member of Congress, making it possible that someone like Cheney could be propelled to the position.
As a matter of fact, Rep. Cheney herself recently pushed the idea that someone outside of Congress could be elected Speaker – albeit, as yet another attack against Donald Trump.
“You can imagine a situation in the current environment where members at the beginning of the alphabet say Donald Trump,” Cheney explained. “You don’t have to be a member of the House to be Speaker. If people on the Republican side start standing up and saying Donald Trump, you could have an impact where many people say that, and where Donald Trump will begin to view that as some sort of a loyalty test.”
“That is the power that he is holding right now over Kevin McCarthy and over a number of members in the leadership of the Republican caucus,” she concluded.
As you may expect, while such a scheme is entirely possible – and possibly more likely than ever considering the current political environment – it’s difficult to envision this coming to fruition.
Just as this scenario would require the conservative House Freedom Caucus to refuse to support Rep. McCarthy for Speaker to the point of allowing Democrats the opening to install Cheney, establishment Democrats and the radical left-wing “Squad” would also be required to be completely on the same page.
And while it may seem from Democrats’ glass house that only the Republican Party is divided right now, the idea that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) would support Liz Cheney for Speaker is laughable.
After all, this is a group of left-wing radicals who believe Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wasn’t radical enough.
But hey, crazier things have certainly happened.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
