With the Tetons providing a stunning backdrop, retired Wyoming rancher Jake Kittle was giving me an introduction to Jackson Hole and its uneasy blending of old timers and wealthy newcomers. He pointed to a new mansion with heated decks, suitable for outdoor entertaining during a snowfall. “The rich don’t come here for the scenery,” said Kittle. “They come here to be rich.” Locals were talking of a recent incident in which a trendy local restaurant spurned preferential seating and had directed Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the wait line outside.
We stopped by a deep pool in upper reaches of the Snake River, identified by Kittle as a favorite fly fishing spot for his state’s Congressman Dick Cheney. Kittle spoke highly of Cheney’s casting skills, his regular-guy demeanor, and knowledge of state history. He was, however, appalled at Cheney’s gung-ho advocacy of more gas wells and coal mines.
In his later roles as defense secretary and vice president, Dick Cheney became Darth Vader to Democrats, conservationists, and the peace community. But he ended life with a display of priorities and values very much needed in today’s America.
The National Cathedral, in Washington, D.C., was filled on Thursday with people taken aback by Cheney 20 years ago. Ex-President Joe Biden, former Vice President Al Gore, and House Speaker-alumna Nancy Pelosi were on hand for the funeral. So was MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Clinton campaign mastermind James Carville. Neither Donald Trump nor J,D. Vance was present or invited. Last year, Trump called Cheney a pal of “Comrade Kamala.”
Denizens of the Seattle left tend to erupt whenever anybody directs a word of praise toward a Republican. They refuse to believe there is such a creature as the honorable, collegial conservative. I dissent. There is a place for character, regardless of tribe or ideology, in our political culture. Remember that John F. Kennedy included rightist colleague Sen. Robert Taft in Profiles in Courage.
As vice president, Cheney was a polarizing, partisan Cold Warrior. He championed a U.S. invasion of Iraq built on misguided assumptions that cost thousands of lives and produced water boarding and other forms of “enhanced interrogation.” Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program proved non-existent.
Cheney was, however , one political figure who didn’t throw people to the wolves, even though opposing reintroduction of wolves to Wyoming. He stood by daughter Mary Cheney when she was “outed” as a lesbian, and likewise Pentagon press secretary Pete Williams. He had no designs to sit in the Oval Office, but comfortably roamed the corridors of power.
The Republican Party today, under Trump, has lost any moral compass and bearings. Its leaders have become pander bears to a retribution-hungry, out-of-control, authoritarian President. When a half dozen House Democrats, military and intelligence vets, posted a video reminding service members of their oath to the Constitution an enraged Donald Trump accused them of “treason” and sedition, “punishable by DEATH.” The Justice Dept is being deployed as an instrument of political revenge. A “conservative” president engages in an off-and-on bromance with a Russian dictator.
Unlike almost all Republicans in public office, however, Dick Cheney did not lose his bearings. He called out the excesses of Trumpism. He endorsed Kamala Harris in last year’s election, saying in a TV spot: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there never has been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
“He knew the bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we have as Americans. For him the choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party is no choice at all,” daughter Liz Cheney said in eulogizing her father.
Occpying her father’s old House seat, Liz Cheney sacrificed her Republican leadership position and political career by helping lead a probe of the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol and Donald Trump’s role as instigator.
The current party leadership is of such stature that it could hide in a field of stubble. Asked about Trump’s labeling House Democrats as traitors, House Speaker Mike Johnson mustered the courage to declare: “The words he chose are not ones I would use.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune was brave enough to say, “I don’t agree with that.” He then accused the Dems of making “provocative”remarks, as if reminding the military of their oath to uphold the Constitution — not blindly obey the leader — is provocative.
Dick Cheney recognized his country’s bitter divisions, who was fanning the flames, and the urgent need to restore the rule of law. Far from being a RINO, he as a “small r” republican who called out Trump as an advocate of dictatorial power.
The country has been well served by those who’ve taken similar actions. With Southern states voting in 1860 to secede, Illinois Democratic Sen. Stephen Douglas rallied support for the President who beat him, saying of Abraham Lincoln: “He will come out right and we will stand by him.” A pair of Republican grandees, Henry Stimson and Frank Knox, took key Cabinet posts under Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. FDR challenger Wendell Willkie endorsed Lend Lease and the supplying of arms to Britain.
Sixty years ago, molasses-voiced Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen supplied the votes that ratified the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty, and the seminal 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. GOP Rep. William McCullough of Ohio fought to strengthen the civil-rights legislation.
It’s taken equal courage and cojones to challenge folly in your own party. Sen Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, with a “declaration of conscience,” was the first to confront the demagoguery of fellow GOP Sen. Joe McCarthy. After Sen. Eugene McCarthy called out the Johnson Administration for its multiplicity of inaccurate predictions of victory in Vietnam, a campaign poster put it well: “He stood up alone and something happened.”
These patriots put aside partisanship at moments when patriotism took precedence. A trio of new-generation Cheneys at the National Cathedral funeral service spoke of travels in which their grandfather stopped to read battlefield markers and delivered running history lessons. In his final public act, endorsing Kamala Harris, “Darth Vader” was touched by the “better angels of our nature.” Will they ever touch Trump?
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