George W. Bush to headline fundraiser for Liz Cheney - Thomas Lifson

 

​ by Thomas Lifson

John Boehner and Paul Ryan, both former GOP House speakers, have helped raise money for her, and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mitt Romney of Utah have all contributed to her campaign from their respective political committees.

Hatred for Donald Trump is reuniting the Bush and Cheney political clans and letting the voters of Wyoming deliver a verdict on the contest between the GOP establishment and the Trump populists.  The split in the Republican Party between pro- and anti-Trump factions is on display with the plan for former president George W. Bush to headline a fundraiser for Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump and is his vocal opponent.  Oddly enough, the fundraiser will not be in Cheney's Wyoming constituency, but rather in Dallas.

Politico reporter Olivia Beavers broke the story:

SCOOP: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is slated to have a fundraiser w/ President George W. Bush next month.

Signals Cheney is hugging Bush-world ties amid exile from the Trump-wing of the party.

Event will be held in Dallas on Oct. 18 w/ some other familiar names... Rove, Miers... pic.twitter.com/aDAKyUKmKO

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) September 22, 2021

 President Trump has endorsed Cheney's primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, and is now at war with much of the Bush/Cheney faction of the GOP.  His comments on the fundraiser, as reported by the New York Post:

Former President Donald Trump attacked George W. Bush and his longtime consigliere Karl Rove Wednesday after it emerged the pair would headline a Texas fundraiser for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) next month.

"RINO former President George 'Dubya' Bush and his flunky Karl Rove are endorsing warmongering and very low polling, Liz Cheney," Trump's emailed statement began.

The 45th president reiterated earlier statements about the 43rd president being "the one who got us into the quicksand of the Middle East and, after spending trillions of dollars and killing nearly a million people, the Middle East was left in worse shape after 21 years than it was when he started his stupidity.

"It ended with Biden's most embarrassing in history withdrawal from Afghanistan, a total surrender, leaving $85 Billion dollars [sic] of equipment and many young Warriors lives behind," Trump continued.

Politico first reported on the Oct. 18 fundraiser in Dallas, which will also feature former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and former Bush White House counsel (and ill-fated Supreme Court nominee) Harriet Miers.

The word "former" applies to many of the featured players here, but Texas has many Bush family loyalists, and Halliburton, which Dick Cheney formerly headed, is headquartered in Dallas.  No doubt a substantial amount of money will be raised, and Cheney already has a sizable war chest, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Ms. Cheney, meanwhile, has responded to Mr. Trump's attacks with the two best fundraising quarters of her political career. She raised $1.5 million in the first three months of the year and $1.9 million in the following three. John Boehner and Paul Ryan, both former GOP House speakers, have helped raise money for her, and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mitt Romney of Utah have all contributed to her campaign from their respective political committees.

That cast of characters pretty well defines the GOPe, against which Trump fought.  I think the voters of Wyoming probably understand the stakes very well.  We'll see if Trump's appeal to them tops Cheney's.

A key factor mentioned by Don Surber and others is that this anti-Trump Bush-Cheney solidarity apparently has healed the rift between the two families from when Bush failed to pardon Scooter Libby, V.P. Cheney's chief of staff, who was railroaded into a conviction by a D.C. jury for having a different recollection of a conversation from that of the other party to it, the late Tim Russert.  Clarice Feldman covered that judicial abomination on these pages.  That W failed to pardon Libby is (forgive the pun) unpardonable.  But evidently, the need to unite to support global interventionism has overcome this personal betrayal.

Photo credit: Milonica (cropped), CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/09/george_w_bush_to_headline_fundraiser_for_liz_cheney.html

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