There is a great deal of speculation, from here to the Beltway, as to Liz Cheney's reasons for challenging Enzi for the Cowboy State's second Senate seat.
My own response when the question arises:
Who knows? And, in the end, who cares? That bunch, the family and the cadre of neocon True Believers behind 'em, are too twisty and bound to mystical, world-changing zeal for me to make head or tail of. Buncha fuckin' loons, you ask me.
The question of how she could capture that seat, or some other stepping stone to real national power, is far easier to answer. Information is power, and little Spawnette's got some pretty deep data pockets.
Three dots only shall I grant thee, connecting them be thy quest.
Dot the First: As detailed in Barton Gellman's book, "Angler," excerpted in the Washington Post, Dick Cheney, in vetting potential Bush running mates in 2000, sent out the most searching questionnaires ever produced by a presidential campaign for its possible veeps, to an astonishingly broad field of influential Republicans, asking for disclosures of every potential Eagleton Surprise, whether political or personal. As Mr. Cheney, in his infinite wisdom, chose himself for the role of warm bucket of spit, these questionnaires proved needless.
Though not entirely useless, one might imagine. No submitted records were ever returned to the submitting candidates, and all files were retained as personal by Mr. Cheney and the trusted lieutenant who had assisted him in the Great Running Mate Search, his daughter Liz.
Dot the Second (Million. Per Day.): TIA, PRISM, whatever the hell they're calling it this week. The US government, since our Glorious Homeland was Godlessly Attacked blah blah, has been keeping tabs on every goddammed body whose talked to any goddammed body for any goddammed reason it could shoehorn into the ever-broadening binder labeled national security. Per innumerable sources, one Richard Bruce Cheney, the mercurial Fourth Branch of Government, spent a lot of personal and staff energy directing the national surveillance complex's focus.
Dot the Third: When His Dickness finally surrendered his the, um, office of his office, we all had a good laugh at the "man-sized safe" in which he spirited away the documents from his nominal vice-presidency which he deemed "personal papers."
Which, it can only be assumed, have been thoroughly archived with the help of Mr. Cheney's trusted lieutenant.
I know this site steers clear of conspiracy theory, but I feel secure in my UID in suggesting that man-sized safes can be woman-sized as well, and that Liz Cheney, whatever her or others' reasons for seeking power in the Republican Party and the US government, will have little troubling marshaling fiercely loyal allies.
People willing to fight for Liz Cheney as though their lives, or at least their reputations, depended on it.