House Republicans Tap Mean Granny Foxx To Shiv Liz Cheney

V-v-v-v-Virginia! Virginia Foxx!

Republicans ain't subtle. They know it looks really, really bad to defenestrate the only woman in Republican House Leadership, particularly when they're underwater with women voters. They've already settled on Rep. Elise Stefanik to replace Conference Chair Liz Cheney , hoping that voters won't notice that they're swapping out a hyper-disciplined fundraising powerhouse from a safe red seat for a 36-year-old mean girl who can't count votes and could be redistricted out of her seat at any time. Chicks, they're all the same, amirite?

But whom can they tap to stick the knife in by proposing a second vote to oust Cheney?

Matt Gaetz led the charge the first time , but sending a guy embroiled in an underage sex scandal to off a woman for telling the truth about historical events is kind of a bad look. So the House Gippers have settled on North Carolina's Virginia Foxx to stick the knife in. Because the only thing that can stop a bad Republican with a vagina is a good Republican with a vagina. Or something.

 Politico reports that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who supported Cheney when Gaetz and Rep. Jim Jordan tried this shit in February, has had a change of heart. Now the minority leader hopes to kill twobroadsbirds with one stone, goosing Foxx's conservative bona fides in preparation for an expected primary challenge from the right while minimizing the bad optics of having one of the grosser GOP goons carry out the hit.

The plan to tap Foxx for the resolution was hatched in recent days. GOP leaders made a calculation that if the effort to remove Cheney from leadership was led by ultra-conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus, their involvement could turn off other more moderate members. Instead, they wanted a Republican to lead the anti-Cheney charge who is both less polarizing and a woman, easing some of the political awkwardness associated with removing the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress from her role as conference chair.

It's not clear exactly what beef Foxx has with Cheney, other than that Cheney used her title as conference chair in a press release criticizing Trump. But nonetheless Foxx has been given the honor of stabbing her colleague in the back at next Wednesday's caucus meeting, where Cheney is expected to be removed from her leadership post on a simple majority vote.

(Please remember this moment next time you get to worrying that we're absolutely guaranteed to lose control of the House in 2022 — these guys are really good at kicking themselves in the dick.)

Meanwhile, Stefanik is already showing that she's ready to take the reins as a serious party leader, hopping on Steve Bannon's wingnut podcast to endorse the Big Lie and pretend that Democratic objections to partisan auditors taking millions of ballots home in their pockets to count in secret is somehow proof that the election was stolen.

Yep, this is a disciplined messenger of true conservatism, ready to go toe-to-to with Nancy Pelosi. Right, Madam Speaker ?

Pelosi on Elise Stefanik: "Maybe she's more, shall we say, compliant..." https://t.co/rmbre3fajK

— Andrew Solender (@Andrew Solender) 1620321021.0 

Maybe she's more, shall we say, compliant. I don't know, it's not my business. I don't really know her.

 I don't know her. OUCH. Safe to say the House speaker is delighted that her opponents have replaced a formidable adversary like Cheney with a lightweight who spends all her time in the conservative media demi-monde chatting up dirty old men. Kudos, Kevin, you've done it again!

[ Politico ]

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