Is Liz Cheney the New Newt Gingrich?
She’s bucking her party’s president, but’s it’s unlikely many Republicans will follow her.
Not a lot of followers.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg
In opposing a president of her own party, Representative Liz Cheney has taken a lead role in a drama with eerie similarities to one of three decades ago. The question this time is whether she represents the future of her party or the past.
In 1989, the appointment of Representative Dick Cheney of Wyoming — Cheney’s father — as Defense secretary left a vacancy in the Republican House leadership. Cheney was House minority whip, second to Minority Leader Bob Michel of Illinois. The campaign to replace Cheney was hard fought, and the winner (by a single vote) was a vituperative conservative backbencher from Georgia named Newt Gingrich.