The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

The juicy political news this week is that Liz Cheney, daughter of former VP Dick Cheney, is running for the Senate in Wyoming. Never mind that the seat she is after is held by a Republican, Mike Enzi, or that until recently she lived in Virginia. In this age of entitlement by name recognition, it all makes perfect sense.

Looking over Cheney's biography, she certainly has a long record of political service, even if she got those jobs because of who her father was. She has also been a mainstay on Sunday morning political roundtables, where she usually spews her odious opinions.

But why take on a firmly entrenched senator, who was the eighth-most conservative senator in 2012? It might be because he's old (69), though that puts him right at the mean of age in the U.S. Senate, or that he's too conciliatory. Cheney has said, basically, that she wants to obstructionist, and Enzi might just be too gentlemanly. Certainly he doesn't appear on TV much, and her attention-seeking narcissism might find that unstomachable. Perhaps the real reason why Cheney wants to take on Enzi is that, like Veruca Salt, she just wants it now.

This has got all the pundits wagging their tongues. The Republican standard-bearers are flocking to Enzi, except for old man Dick, of course. She could certainly raise a lot of cash, and since even a primary fight won't help the Democrats of the state (who could probably fit in a phone booth), I'm kind of torn about whether I'd like to see her win or not. The entertainment value of the bizarre statements she would utter would make up for the loss of Michele Bachmann, but on the other hand, it's just too dangerous to have this woman in any position of authority.

Wyoming is solid red state. Perhaps not uncoincidentally, it also has the highest suicide rate in the country, and just this morning I read that there are only two escalators in the entire state. When a certain candidate has a lock on an election, it's said that the only way they can lose is if they get caught having sexual congress with a farm animal, but in Wyoming this probably wouldn't be a deterrent.

The next fifteen months should be lively for the otherwise bored journalists in Wyoming, and will make for some enjoyable rubbernecking for the rest of us.