Quotes of the day

Liz Cheney has opened a new front in the battle for the soul of the Republican Party with her decision to challenge Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). The fight pits conservatives willing to work across the aisle with a newer breed that views compromise as defeat…

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“When you look at how conservative Sen. Enzi is, my fear is this won’t be an ideological campaign, which is the type of clash I welcome. It will be a personality-style campaign more than anything else,” Ari Fleischer, who served as White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, told The Hill. “Races of that nature tend to become more harmful and divisive over time, and more uncomfortable for everyone involved.”…

“Everybody agrees on the importance of compromise for the good of the nation. But I believe there comes a moment where you have to tell the difference between compromise and capitulation,” Cheney told The Hill.

“The code of the West is important — its last pillar is knowing where to draw the line.”

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Saying she is ready to “stand and fight,” the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney said she entered the race because she is “deeply concerned about what’s happening in Washington and what it means for the state of Wyoming.”…

Describing herself as a “constitutional conservative,” Cheney voiced concerns not only about Democratic policies, but also with politicians within her own party.

“When I hear leaders of the Republican Party saying we need to move to the left, we need to moderate, you know, that is a recipe for disaster,” Cheney said. “What we need are people who can stand up and explain why we believe what we believe, why we believe in a limited government and low taxes and a strong national defense, and why we believe in the free enterprise system — because it’s raised more people out of poverty than any system that’s ever existed.”

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Sen. Mike Enzi’s fundraising efforts have gotten off to a sluggish start this year, but he’s received support from Republican establishment and heavyweight political action committees ahead of his primary fight against Liz Cheney.

The Wyoming Republican received $7,500 from Koch Industries PAC, the committee affiliated with the company owned by megadonors Charles and David Koch, according to a POLITICO review of Enzi’s second quarter campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission…

The three-term incumbent also received support from the leadership PACs of establishment Republicans such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

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“I have grown to admire and respect Mike Enzi. I’ll tell you, he’s one of these solid guys,” McCain, 76, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt.” “I know nothing that Mike Enzi would do that didn’t deserve re-election.”…

“I don’t know a person in our conference that doesn’t admire, respect, and have great affection for” Enzi, McCain said.

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Thoughts on the tea party?

I think the tea party has been a force for good. I think they’ve injected a fiscal discipline into the system that wasn’t there before. I think that they reminded our elected representatives that they work for the people that elected them. And I also think that the kind of change going on inside the Republican Party — it’s the kind of change you often see after a party loses an election. We lost the last two cycles pretty badly. It often results new leadership coming to the floor and a new generation stepping up to the plate.

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Should we expect the vice president to hit the campaign trail very much?

He will not be. He’s very supportive of my run, obviously. And thrilled that I’m getting into the race. I don’t want him on the campaign trail because I want people to understand that I’m doing this on my own. So he won’t be campaigning around Wyoming for me. I’m dedicated to earning it myself.

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Only 31 percent of Wyoming voters believe Liz Cheney is a “Wyomingite,” according to a new poll.

Public Policy Polling tweeted the results of their poll on Monday, with more Wyoming polling to be released Tuesday morning…

PPP said 62 percent of those surveyed for the poll were Republicans while 22 percent were Democrats.

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JONES: But also the people in Wyoming apparently don’t like it very much either if you look at the polling data. But here’s what’s interesting to me, I’ve watched Liz Cheney. I don’t think she’s big on potholes in Wyoming. I don’t think this about the people of Wyoming. I don’t think she’s about the Republican Party that much because she’s going to get a net zero increase in Republicans if she wins.

I think she’s running for president. I think this is about the Cheney brand. I think she’s running for president in 2020…

PERINO: (inaudible) growing up there. So I talked to my Aunt Patty Sue runs Memory Lanes Bowling Alley in Rawlins, Wyoming. I have other family there that are building businesses and trying to make a living that way.

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And I assumed that she would say something along the lines of, well we like Liz Cheney but you know, let, she should wait her turn. Let’s just see how it goes. I was surprised, my Aunt said, you know, the Senate doesn’t come with a lifetime guarantee.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What?

PERINO: And I would take a listen to Liz Cheney. So I think the Republicans might actually be more willing at least to hear her out.

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Mike Enzi is Wyoming to the core. Liz Cheney prefers the gilded salons of faraway places in distant states where she can expound about her politics of anger and gridlock. She has now airlifted herself for a brief stay in Wyoming that will end when she realizes that voters do not approve of her lack of respect for loyalty and her crass ambition for power.

Before the rooster crows a hundred more times, Liz Cheney will drop out of the race, and in November 2014, Mike Enzi will be reelected to the Senate.

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“We need fifty more of you,” Rush Limbaugh told newly-announced Wyoming Senate candidate Liz Cheney on Monday, then “we’ll be talking.”…

Limbaugh nonetheless had high praise for the GOP firebrand. “Liz Cheney might turn out to be one of [Dick Cheney’s] greatest contributions” to America, he concluded.

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Beege Welborn 5:00 PM | December 24, 2024
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