Saturday, August 31, 2013

Liz Cheney is a piece of work

By Richard K. Barry

Liz Cheney is running for the Republican senate nomination in Wyoming against incumbent Mike Enzi. The GOP establishment seem to be backing Enzi, but Liz wants what she wants. Anyway, it's a democracy so, fine, she can run.


Recently, Cheney issued a press release accusing Enzi of conducting a push poll which implied that Cheney was pro-abortion and supported gay marriage. A push poll, if you don't know, is a poll that asks questions which never clearly state that your opponent holds an unpopular view or is guilty of some terrible thing, but suggests as much. For example, one such question might be: "If you knew candidate X kicked puppies for fun, would it make you more or less likely to vote for him?"  The question never states clearly that candidate X has done such a thing, but those so polled walk away thinking it's true. Carl Rove is a master at this.


Cheney accused Enzi of putting a poll in the field that asked, "Are you aware that Liz Cheney supports abortion and aggressively promotes gay marriage." You might say, "What a dirty trick on the part of Enzi because the question doesn't state these things as fact, only asks if a respondent is "aware" of these positions on the part of Cheney." 


Thing is that Enzi denies being responsible for any push poll, which is no surprise. No one brags about engineering push polls, at least not until long after the fact. The other thing is that it's really hard to prove you didn't conduct a push poll. Something about proving a negative. But I'm inclined to believe Enzi. Liz Cheney is more associated with the beltway establishment and potentially some liberal views. You will also recall that her sister Mary Cheney is gay and father Dick has been rather supportive on the issue.

Liz is the one who needs to get out early and often with statements trumpeting her social conservative credibility in this very red state. How better to do that than to claim her opponent has smeared her and misrepresented her views, which ends up being a two-fer? Not surprisingly, Liz Cheney has come out strongly, in the aftermath of the push poll dustup, to say she is anti- abortion and anti-gay marriage. How convenient.


I will be so pleased when she gets thumped in the primary. It's not like there is much purity in electoral politics, but I doubt the Cheney's have any boundaries.


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