"Liz, We Hardly Remember Ye!"

I will say this for Liz Cheney: She was wrong about all but one thing, but that one thing was the most important thing. And she gave up more than most of us have to try to save it.

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) August 17, 2022

She lost an election. She didn’t sacrifice her first born male child, or choose career over marriage to her high school sweetheart, throw herself on a live grenade, or put her sister’s private life above her political career.

She did finally repent of that one, long after it no longer mattered.  Her noble high-mindedness does not bear much scrutiny.

Imagine if you told your 2002 self that in 20 years you were going to be REALLY sad that Dick Cheney’s daughter lost the Republican primary

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 17, 2022

Good thing I didn't, 'cause I'm not.

And while I'm on the subject:

We are told here that Cheney’s loss is not because of Trump but because she became wrapped up in Beltway drama. and forgot about Wyoming. I don’t buy it. So if she had behaved more like Peter Meijer, she would have won?? https://t.co/V3dFAYGnDa pic.twitter.com/dBWlD0gsOf

— Patterico (@Patterico) August 17, 2022

Patterico speaks from...well, not Wyoming. Speaking from Texas (also not Wyoming), I have to say Ed Morrissey makes a compelling case.  Picking up where that quote in the tweet leaves off:

Hageman did more to embrace Trump in this election for obvious reasons, but she also talked about a lot more, too. Hageman talked about a wide range of policies important to Wyoming voters and pledged to focus on that rather than vendettas. Cheney sold herself as the Lone Truthteller focused entirely on the January 6 riot and fully part of Nancy Pelosi’s unprecedentedly partisan investigation.

My friend and longtime political observer Kelly Maher Polk shared her thoughts from neighboring Colorado:

Regardless of her last name, Congresswoman Cheney was roundly defeated, not because Wyomingites are hapless rubes with MAGA hats, but because she became a swamp creature.

While Harriet Hageman toured the state talking about the economy, the dire situation in agriculture, water rights, energy, and federal land use issues, Congresswoman Cheney only talked about one thing – Donald Trump.

Although the mainstream media is trying to frame this as “Trump v never-Trump,” it’s more like “a person who talked about the issues facing the Wyomingites every day” v “someone who only talked about political infighting.”

Cheney’s monomaniacal approach ironically turned her into exactly what she was fighting against. She claims that because of fighting the behemoth, she sacrificed her seat, but in her fight she got sucked into the Borg herself and lost sight of her constituents.

“Monomaniacal” is also a pretty good word to describe someone who describes an intraparty primary loss as The Battle of the Wilderness and who compares herself favorably to Lincoln for Beltway infighting. No one expected a moment of humility from Cheney, who feels abandoned by her party, but perhaps a moment of perspective would have been nice.*

Out here in Texas, on the western side of the Mississippi and far from the Beltway, I gotta say people here aren't all the het up about Beltway drama, either.  A GOP politician whose main claim to retaining office was that she/he was riding hard to bring down Trump and that's what he/she had done for her/his district lately, probably wouldn't clear the primary, either.  Trump's a bad guy, no doubt; and support for Trump is still stronger in Texas than support for Biden.  But if your bona fides are how brave you are and all the Beltway pundits and NEW YORK CITY pontificators say so...well, that doesn't sell so well on this side of the mighty river.

We really just don't care.**

If all you have is Donald Trump, more and more you don't have much.  That goes for Trump's enemies as well as his friends.  Maybe that's the lesson in Cheney's defeat.

Too bad nobody's gonna see it.

*I should probably include the quote Morrissey uses from Cheney's concession speech, per the NYT:

 That was evident in her paraphrase of a quote popularized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — “It has been said that the long arc of history bends toward justice and freedom. That’s true, but only if we make it bend” — and even more so a few minutes later, when she turned her attention to the Civil War.

In the spring of 1864, after the Union suffered more than 17,000 casualties in the Battle of the Wilderness, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had a choice, Ms. Cheney said: to retreat or to keep fighting.

“As the fires of the battles still smoldered, Grant rode to the head of the column,” she said. “He rode to the intersection of Brock Road and Orange Plank Road. And there, as the men of his army watched and waited, instead of turning north, back toward Washington and safety, Grant turned his horse south toward Richmond and the heart of Lee’s army. Refusing to retreat, he pressed on to victory.”

General Grant, President Abraham Lincoln “and all who fought in our nation’s tragic Civil War, including my own great-great-grandfathers, saved our union,” Ms. Cheney said. “Their courage saved freedom, and if we listen closely, they are speaking to us down through generations. We must not idly squander what so many have fought and died for.”

And Morrissey's comment on that:

Well. Liz Cheney didn’t lose on the battlefield; she lost an election. It’s a bit over the top to compare a Wyoming primary to the Battle of the Wilderness, no? It’s not even comparable to, say, Ronald Reagan’s loss in the 1976 primary, let alone an actual war battle with 17,000 killed in action.  [emphasis in original]

**Is it "Pelosi's investigation," and is it "unprecedentedly partisan"?  Yeah, not compared to Benghazi, BENGHAZI!, BENGHAZI!,  you say; and I agree.  But Wyoming elected Liz Cheney, who's been the bete noir of the Democrats, not their secret sharer.  And even when Democrats crossed party lines to vote for Liz, there weren't enough of them in Wyoming to make a difference.  You gotta dance with the one what brung you, and outside Jackson Hole, Democrats are apparently as rare as hen's teeth in Big Sky Country.  No doubt voters there see the business in far away DC as partisan and political and maybe Cheney should have run a local campaign, not a national one.  It was Tip O'Neill who used to say "All politics is local."  Looks like Liz forgot that lesson; if she ever knew it.  I'm not sure her roots in Wyoming are all that deep to begin with.  That can make a difference.