Brace yourselves. Another Cheney is eying a seat in government.
Liz Cheney, 46, phoned Republican incumbent, Michael Enzi who was first elected to the Senate in 1996, to let him know she's thinking about challenging him in 2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Ms. Cheney, 46, is showing up everywhere in the state, from chicken dinners to cattle growers’ meetings, sometimes with her parents in tow. She has made it clear that she wants to run for the Senate seat now held by Michael B. Enzi, a soft-spoken Republican and onetime fly-fishing partner of her father.
One problem, Enzi isn't ready to retire. And if Cheney decides to challenge him, it threatens to start a civil war among the state's Republican establishment.
It would bring about “the destruction of the Republican Party of Wyoming if she decides to run and he runs, too,” Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from the state, said in an interview last week. “It’s a disaster — a divisive, ugly situation — and all it does is open the door for the Democrats for 20 years.”
Dick and Lynne Cheney divide their time between McLean, Va., a home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and a house near Jackson Hole, Wyo. Liz, on the other hand, just recently moved to Wyoming from Virginia in the last year. And boy howdy is she ever eager to "to establish her Cowboy State credentials, peppering social media sites with photos of her children’s horse-riding competitions and descriptions of Wyoming as “God’s Country.”
Now, as beloved and admired as the Cheney's are (I'll give you a minute to stop gagging), the fine people of Wyoming think Senator Enzi has done a good job in Washington and deserves a third term.
“I know of no one who doesn’t want Mike Enzi to run for the Senate again,” said Douglas W. Chamberlain, a former Wyoming House speaker.
Also, because Enzi has just won a long-sought seat on the Finance Committee, he is especially excited to continue serving. But typical of a right wing nutter, Liz may criticize Enzi for being too willing to work with Democrats instead of pushing extreme conservative causes. Cheney has also called President Obama “the most radical man ever to occupy the Oval Office.”
The only reason Mr. Enzi would “be in any difficulty is if there’s a weird group of Republicans who think compromise is akin to communism,” said Mr. Simpson, who called Mr. Enzi and Ms. Cheney “both wonderful people” and, like many here, does not want to have to choose.
This is a story worth keeping an eye on, just for the popcorn factor alone.