What a Fake, Liz Cheney

Sigh. Liz Cheney has a book, “Oath and Honor,” implying she stands for them. What a fake is Liz Cheney, self-serving and sure she is the second coming of something. She dishonors selfless service, as her father did, who sent 4,500 young Americans to death in Iraq after his five military deferments to avoid Vietnam.

Now comes Liz Cheney, filled with vim and vinegar, saying Donald Trump is “the orange Jesus” to anyone who thinks his policies were better than Joe Biden’s.

Worse, she condemns virtually every Republican she ever knew, does so with spleen, calling them “cowards” – rather ironic, don’t you think? – and says she was right about January 6^th, and everything else. Liz, what about the omitted tapes?

One has to pause and marvel at her audacity, her new book, out in December. She says if the Republican Party comes to its senses, sidesteps Trump, she will – wow! – be the GOP’s nominee. If Trump, by contrast, is nominated, she leaves the Party. Right.

The first time I met young Liz Cheney, she was – as she is now – full of being a vice president’s daughter, full of her mother’s let-me-tell-you attitude, ready to find others wrong, from education to international policy, just about anything.

At that time, back in 2005, I was finishing up a tour as assistant secretary of state for Colin Powell, running his largest operational bureau, airwing of several hundred airframes, law enforcement training and deployment in 70 countries, Iraq and Afghanistan to Colombia and Kosovo. Cheney was a newly minted deputy assistant secretary of state, once worked for Rich Armitage, ready to rule the roost.

Observing her was interesting, as she instantly gave the aura of someone sure she was in the catbird seat, ready to be unquestioned, above the fray. She seemed to think, between her father and Rumsfeld’s plant at State, Rice, she had it made.

While I left soon afterward, having been more a Reagan, Bush 41, Colin Powell guy than a Rice person, the impression left by Liz Cheney lingered. Openness, accountability, authenticity, and other-regarding service do not quickly come to mind in discussing anything she did. She was a climber, simply put.

So, now we have this lovely book, all about how Ms. Cheney, following in her “Iraq Now” father’s footsteps will save the world … from what? From MAGA Republicans, who honor the Constitution, Bill of Rights, a secure border, properly respected police, limited government, strong defense, lower taxes, high growth?  

The whole thing looks like what Washington DC “does” all the time, raise a stink, play the martyr or hero, claim the sky is falling, crisis upon us, write a book, muck it up, make a buck, run for president, set up a little worship center in the den. That is surely Ms. Cheney.

Honestly, she is a lot like her father, sure she is right no matter the facts, serving her own interests first. Who with integrity, after all, pledges to screen candidates for vice president, then picks himself. Dick Cheney did. Who claims to be a patriot, then runs away five times from military service in Vietnam?

Who knows Afghanistan is the only target post 9-11, then decides to spend thousands of young American lives on Iraq? Never looks back, never apologizes, never thinks twice about his own cowardice, and frankly does not care?  

Let’s call a spade a spade, call a Cheney a Cheney, and be done with it. Some people never learn, do not want to learn. Their mission is themselves, and if they have to take out a president, twist facts to sell a book, claim sainthood, so be it. Sigh. Honestly, what a fake.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.