slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

© Provided by The Hill - Opinion by Bernard Goldberg

Of the millions of words uttered about the J*** 6, 2021, r**t at the Capitol — or i**********n, if you prefer — none have been so eloquent as those spoken by Liz Cheney, who at the time was the Republican congresswoman from Wyoming.

Cheney was the vice chair of the House select committee that was investigating the events of that day. At the opening of a hearing, she issued what amounted to a warning to her fellow Republicans: “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

For that, she was called a t*****r. She lost her seat to a woman who wholeheartedly supported Trump (and whom Trump in return wholeheartedly supported). To say Wyoming is Trump country is an understatement: Cheney got only about 29 percent of the GOP primary v**e in 2022.

And even now, after numerous run-ins with the law, the man she warned Republicans about is leading his GOP rivals for the nomination. It isn’t even close.

Except for Chris Christie and one or two others, no one wants to say out loud that Trump is unfit for office, even though I suspect more than a few know it. Instead, they go after him wearing kid gloves — fearing if they hit him too hard they may incur the wrath of his most passionate supporters. It’s a lot easier to wish he’d just go away.

From the moment Trump came down that escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, the GOP establishment figured there was no way he could win. They saw him as a TV reality show guy with a massive ego. To political pros, Trump was a joke.

But when it became clear that the joke was on them, a lot of Republicans jumped on the Trump crazy train hoping the office would somehow change him. When it didn’t, they stayed with him anyway … despite, well, despite everything — the lies, the name-calling, the tweets at all hours of the day and night, the nonstop, never-ending drama.

But then came J*** 6, 2021 — the day he tried to turn the Constitution on its head and stay in office even after he lost to Joe Biden. That should have changed everything.

Loyalty goes only so far, after all. But nothing Trump did that day led GOP leaders — or conservative TV media allies, or GOP v**ers — to disown him. A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 75 percent of Republican v**ers agreed “he was just exercising his right to contest the e******n” while only 19 percent thought “he went so far that he threatened American democracy.”

Anything is possible, of course, and there’s still a long way to go, but at the moment the odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination is none other than Trump — the man who allegedly encouraged the J*** 6 mayhem to stay in office after losing. And if Biden’s age and mental acuity are on the b****t, Trump may very well be president again.

Republicans likely hope that, win or lose in 2024, T***p w*n’t be h*****g around the party’s neck much longer. If he loses, they figure, that’ll be the end of him. If he wins, they’ll only have to put up with his chaos for four more years.

But Trump is incapable of leaving the limelight. He’s addicted to being the center of attraction. And even if he winds up behind bars, he will figure out a way to send social media messages out every 10 minutes about how the system was r****d, about how he was the victim of a political prosecution. On that, let’s acknowledge, he just might be on to something,

Speaking of “behind bars,” a recent New Hampshire poll tells us that 57 percent of GOP primary v**ers in that state would back Trump even if he was “serving time in prison during the 2024 general e******n.” You can’t make this stuff up.

Democrats, in case you were wondering, aren’t any better when it comes to looking the other way. Wh**ever Biden’s role may or may not be in his son’s business dealings, it’s obvious that H****r’s real business was selling influence, or at least the “illusion of access” — peddling his family name for lots and lots of money. Yet I can’t think of even one prominent Democrat who has risen to condemn H****r’s smarmy operation. T***h, for both Democrats and Republicans, is too often an inconvenience to be avoided at all costs.

Which brings me back to Cheney’s warning. “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

That may not be something GOP politicians or conservative cable news talking heads or Republican v**ers want to think about. But I suspect more than a few of them have at least an inkling, an uncomfortable feeling, that she may have been on to something. Whether they care or not is another matter altogether.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

This is someone else's opinion. What is yours, and why? Details would help with understanding.

Liberty Tree

He never voices anything of his own. He just searches the web for some leftwing opinion piece and tries to present it as fact. I do not even bother to read his posts.

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

No... what slatten does is posts leftwing propaganda and then when you call him on it his defense is that he was just sharing information and it wasn't necessarily his opinion. To which I would challenge why would he even post it to begin with unless he agreed with it.

Liberty Tree

Of course, it is what he thinks. He is as left as anyone on OPP. He tries to mask it but fails.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

He's a good man. I've met him a few times. I just want his opinion, and not someone else's.
We all have our own thoughts, and opinions about things. Maybe if we shared them with each other instead of relying on media, we could get somewhere.

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

How can he be a "good man" if he gets Bad Boob's seal of approval (see above).

Drue-Marie

But you just DID bother to read this post, and you responded, as well.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Did he ask for bad bob's seal of approval?

Parky, how do I know if you're a good man when I haven't met you?

It ain't all political, man.
I like the man. We differ on many things, but, ill still call him a friend.
Why do you think I asked for his opinion instead of the writer's? We have to break through the propagandists and talk to each other.
Anymore, I believe in the Almighty God, and while here on this earth, I believe what I can see, hear, and touch. A lot of that is sketchy too.
I'm running on instinct, and survival.
Having extreme hatred for someone who bashes my salad se******n at the buffet is not who I am.

Take it, or leave it.

Liberty Tree

I did not read it. I responded to the comment about it.

crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island

Slatten:o
I saw Trump give that speech on TV live and have seen it re-broadcast numerous times. He told his followers to demonstrate peacefully. These indictments have as their goal the criminalization of dissent.

Dick Cheney is a war-mongering, draft-dodging slug. He thought nothing of taking five deferments during the Viet-Nam era and then counseling all manner of foreign interventions. He is the personification of Phil Ochs Daft Dodger's rag.

That's why Liz & he h**e Trump.

Drue-Marie

Apple, meet orange

Big Kahuna

And the next thing you know Cheney destroyed all the documents of the 1*6 Select Committee and did not want to discuss all the evidence the committee suppressed that proved Trump was innocent of all charges in the fist fight and mostly peaceful protest at the OK Coral, I mean Capitol Bldg. Even the FBI agreed that Trump had no hand in the mostly peaceful protest.

Big Kahuna

Bad Seed Bob has rubbed off on Slats.