Tea Party debacle implodes: Liz Cheney quits senate race

[DonViejo]

Yes, nepotism, carpetbagging and cruelty to her sister hurt -- but Cheney’s troubles show a movement near its end

JOAN WALSH

OK, Liz Cheney was a carpetbagger from Virginia who had little to sell in Wyoming besides her father’s connections. Still, Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter was not nearly as ludicrous a Senate candidate as Christine O’Donnell of Delaware, or Joe Miller of Alaska, or Sharron Angle of Nevada, or Joe Buck of Colorado, or…well, you get the point – all of whom won their 2010 Tea Party primaries against respectable conservative mainstream Republicans.

That was 2010. On Sunday the 2014 midterm season began with Liz Cheney calling off her doomed Wyoming Senate primary campaign against conservative Mike Enzi, citing unspecified “serious health issues” in her family. We sincerely hope those issues are resolved soon.

But the Tea Party’s health issues are also a problem. Despite Cheney’s high-profile campaign troubles, she had a lot of political assets that lesser 2010 challengers couldn’t rely on – and yet those candidates won anyway. Cheney is leaving the race trailing Enzi by more than 50 points. 2014 is going to be an unpredictable midterm election, but Cheney’s failure suggests it’s not going to be a cakewalk for come-from-nowhere Tea Party candidates — or opportunists like Cheney who pretend to be Tea Party devotees.

Sure, Cheney only moved to Wyoming in 2012, and she had that embarrassing screw-up with her fishing license. Probably the biggest blow to her candidacy was her high-profile, classless row with her sister Mary over gay marriage. Liz took to Fox News to say she didn’t support gay marriage, even though she’d attended Mary’s to wife Heather Poe – and Mary and Heather took to Facebook to chide Liz for either cruelty or hypocrisy, depending on what she really believed, which ultimately no one seemed to know.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/01/06/tea_party_debacle_implodes_liz_cheney_quits_senate_race/

[MindMover]

1. Unpredictable my arse .... Republicants are losing and the rest are winning ....

[Scuba]

2. A move immediately endorsed by Sarah Palin.

[truebluegreen]

3. I think Walsh is wrong.

In Wyoming I bet the fishing license and the very public row with the Simpsons were way more important than her clash with her sister. Carpetbagging doomed this campaign from the start, and being a neo-con nailed down the coffin lid. I don't think even ol' Darth could overcome that particular bit of baggage, favorite son or not.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. So, the Tea Baggers are going back to just calling themselves Republicans now.

SSDD

[rustbeltvoice]

5. Nonsense, Lizard Cheney is not a teabagger; she is the self-entitled spawn of Satan.