“Well I’ve never gotten around the question of her having left the governorship of Alaska midterm,” Cheney said. “I’ve never heard that adequately explained so that I could understand why, how she decided in her first term to step down – I’d like to know more about that.”
The entire media and beltway pundits pounced upon his statement as the ultimate rejection of Palin since it came from the “most conservative person” of the previous administration. To many conservatives, Cheney’s confusion over her resignation was quite surprising. Why can’t the D.C. conservatives comprehend a simple concept which so many of us ordinary citizens are capable of grasping with such clarity? My friends, this differentiation between us and them is precisely why Cheney and many other true conservative D.C. politicians simply cannot understand the true reason of Palin’s resignation.
You see, although Cheney is a true conservative, he’s also a Washington guy who has breathed Crony Capitalism for a considerable amount of years. When surrounded with dangerous fumes, if no precautions are taken, one gets affected regardless of the initial after one’s name. Halliburton, at which Cheney was a former chairman and CEO, received billions in no-bid contracts from the Bush Administration and it’s unknown if any and/or to what extent Cheney was involved.
Additionally, although Cheney has received stacks of hate mail from liberal wing nuts, he was also on the receiving end of his party’s praise and support. His inability to relate to someone who has faced opposition and gridlock from one’s own party in addition to that of the Democrat Party is therefore understandable. He was never forced to deal with endless ridiculous lawsuits like Palin had to because she had dared take on the status quo!
It’s time for conservatives to wake up and realize that the majority of the “permanent political class” will do just as Cheney has done and not necessarily from evil intentions to destroy her. They have simply been in Washington for far too long and see Palin’s image of reform, which is supported by conservative common-sense Americans, as delusional and impossible. Despite their having heard of Palin’s unbelievable reform accomplished in Alaska, it is too difficult for them to imagine it actually happening in D.C. itself. On top of that, crony capitalism is so deeply entrenched in Washington psyches that it has affected most members of both parties who fear an end to the partying and powers they’ve become accustomed to due to a future President Palin.
This is why I don’t expect Paul Ryan to support a future Palin presidential run despite her having been of the first to support his Medicare reform plan. For although he’s often proposed conservative legislation, he has never voted against not-so-conservative bills drafted by the other party leaders whether from the house or the senate. It’s not for naught that Ryan is number-four in the house, as part of leadership according to those currently in power is defined as going with the flow.
This is not limited to Ryan. A majority of the house voted for his reform bill and then voted for Boehner’s plan which was a water-downed version of Obama’s plan. It didn’t cut spending, only slowed it.
Palin will still face additional attacks from all sides and we must understand from where these attack stem. It’s because of her desire to destroy crony capitalism and to rebuild and restore America to its previous position.
Despite all that will come, as in the past, they will be unable to destroy her.
As Palin had said in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Tea Party Express Rally:
You’ve already withstood the wrath, the disdain, and the lies from the media and the Permanent Political Class looking down on you – on US — mocking us, making things up about us, telling us to go to Hell. You have already withstood that. We’re still standing, standing here today, standing strong, and we’re RESTORING all that’s good about America.
I'm not defending Cheney, know he endorsed elitist KBH over Perry, but it could be that he simply is not informed as to why Palin resigned. I doubt keeping informed about Sarah Palin has been high on his priority list of things to think about on a daily basis.
IIRC, he has had some major health challenges since he left office, as well.
I am very impressed with his daughter Liz when she is on Sunday morning news shows. She is sharp as a tact!
But .. if I may defend Cheney a little - he has been dealing with so many health issues, I sincerely doubt he was very cognizant of what was going on with Sarah Palin.
I would think that once he knows the truth - from her - he will realize she is more like him than she is like the “establishment GOP”. He too always ruffled the establishment GOP - they called him names - they refused to support him when he ran for President.
Very good point. A systems man like Cheney, despite his good qualities, can't figure out what's entailed by really challenge the status quo. They're used to using Sarah's words as ad slogans, as "product" differentiation to make Republicans more electable. Sarah Palin bears the scars from really threatening the crony-capitalist system, and people like Cheney can't quite figure it out.
As she mentioned in her speech, Abraham Lincoln was thought a fool. The people who said he was, the insiders of his time, didn't say it because they had it in for him. They meant it. In Canada, there's an old slogan - one that might as well be the slogan of the permanent political class: "Loose cannons fall off the deck." Systems people take that to heart, so they're bound - condemned - to see real challenges of the status quo as fools' errands. As beating your head against a brick wall.
That's why people like Cheny can't figure her out. They know she's a very good politician: she went all the way up from Wasilla to the governorship of Alaska and the Vice-Presidential nomination. Their common sense tells them, "a quixotic figure would never have gotten that far." She's in the winner's circle, so they likely have gotten her Tea Party leadership pegged as her latest schtick.
Thus, his bafflement at why she resigned. Not only is it not something a successful politican does, but also it shows her as a real reformer - which the insiders associate with tilting at windmills. How could a political star like Sarah Palin be so "foolish" as to cut into vested interests to the point where they sic the attack dogs on her as a person?
But...I have a sneaky suspicion that Cheney's playing a disinformation game. He could be pretending to know nothing about it, so as to give her supporters an opening to explain why. Structuring it to give the impression that anyone who thinks she's a "quitter" is merely ignorant, and in need of the truth. If he's up to that, he's effectively pro-Palin.