I Know Heroes. Liz Cheney Is No Hero.

What I've been reading

Hi there.

I talked a lot yesterday about the ongoing Republican effort to remove Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership position as punishment for correctly stating that the 2020 presidential election was not fraudulent.

But we need to be really clear about one thing: Liz Cheney is not a hero or a martyr.

Politico’s Jack Schafer talks about the frustrating phenomenon I’ve been railing against for a couple of years. Mitt Romney became the first Senator to vote to convict a President of his own party in an impeachment trial, and liberals instantly forgave him for opposing same-sex marriage. George W. Bush passed Michelle Obama a piece of candy, and liberals instantly forgave him for possible war crimes. John Bolton wrote a damning book about Donald Trump, and liberals instantly forgave him for trying to start World War III. It’s great to respect people who demonstrate principles, even if you disagree with some of their stances. I, for one, have plenty of good things to say about Romney, and recognize that for all his faults, Bush was a far better leader for the Republican Party than the current gang of misfits. But lionizing these people to the point of completely erasing the worst parts of their records is obscene.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow isn’t falling for it with Liz Cheney. Unlike John McCain, she happily allowed her supporters to believe in the Obama birther conspiracy theory in the late 2000s and early 2010s. She implied that the Obama Department of Justice was working for Al Qaeda. She supported Donald Trump even after audio emerged of him bragging about sexual assault. She vocally opposes her own sister’s right to marry. And she has openly praised the use of torture in interrogations.

In fact, Cheney’s record skews far more ultra-conservative than her expected replacement, Elise Stefanik. The only Republican litmus test is whether someone believes that the 2020 election was legitimate. That shouldn’t be the Democratic litmus test.

Of course, the media is still abuzz over yesterday’s Facebook Oversight Board decision, and I haven’t been able to stay away from the coverage. On Tech shows that the board really isn’t much of a decision-making body. A NYT op-ed examines the board’s decision to punt Trump’s Facebook fate back to Mark Zuckerberg. Another NYT piece looks at how the decision affects Trump’s ability to fundraise. And yet another NYT article shows how a former British politician is steering the ship when it comes to Facebook and Trump.

In other news, I talked earlier this year about Senator Roger Wicker’s attempt to take credit for the relief package he voted against. Now, as the Associated Press shows, more and more Republicans are trying the same tactic. The NYT shows that President Biden isn’t backing down from his fight to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Buffalo News offers an obituary for the recently deceased Joe Slade, the political consultant who worked for Joe Biden for many years. And Business Insider reports that Tesla is set to lose a major customer.

Lastly, if you’re looking for streaming recommendations, Rolling Stone has put together a list of the 100 best sitcoms of all times (the omission of Superstore is an affront to sensibility), and the NYT runs down the best films and shows leaving Netflix this month. Cheers to that.

Thank you for caring enough to read.

Be safe. Wear a mask. Talk to you tomorrow.