Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Demand for former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney’s new book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning,” actually overwhelmed Amazon, which had already sold every available hardback copy by 3 a.m. Tuesday, its first day on the market. Let’s hope that means that at least a few Trumplicans are ready to hear what she has to say.
They know, of course, that they’re not going to like it, and that they no longer like Dick Cheney’s daughter, who with her pedigree and ability could have had an unlimited future in the former GOP if only she had been willing to ignore reality, conscience and the rule of law.
Cheney saw well before Jan. 6 that Trump had no intention of leaving office just because he’d lost the election. She saw the potential for serious violence on that day, too, and hired private security.
But the cowgirl Cassandra found that no one wanted to hear her warnings, and everyone who could read a poll knew she’d lose the job that so many of her former colleagues are now quitting in frustration.
In the end, Cheney didn’t have what it takes to hold onto her own office, by which I mean that she wouldn’t abandon all principle to stay on the sunny side of the rageaholic that one congressman who was willing to part ways with his self-respect calls “the orange Jesus” on page 85.
You want to know who? Buy the book. Or if you don’t care who said it but do care that we’re in serious danger of losing our democracy, buy it for the seditionist in your life, as a Christmas present to the country.
I was first through the door when the Barnes & Noble on the Plaza opened Tuesday, and turned the last page just before midnight. On page 366 of her 368-page book, she says, “We have also now learned that most Republicans currently in Congress will do what Donald Trump asks, no matter what it is. We cannot rely on them to check his power. A Senate of Josh Hawleys certainly won’t stop Trump.”
Unfortunately, they won’t, which is why she is right to be riding through the night, yelling that if orange Jesus is reelected, he’ll never leave office again. He’s not hiding that fact, either, but on the contrary is advertising it in nonstop pronouncements promising to get revenge, unravel institutions and prosecute dissenters “that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
For me, the main surprise of Cheney’s book was how crucial the moral malleability of now House Speaker Mike Johnson turned out to be.
When Cheney finished and turned in the book in September, she had no way of knowing he’d wind up with the job.
But there he is in its pages, “seriously misleading our members” to help overturn the election, and then when challenged, cheerfully admitting that he is in the wrong. “We just need to do this one last thing for Trump,” he keeps saying.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace asked Cheney in an interview if she thinks Johnson is more dangerous in that job than Kevin McCarthy, whose M.O. is best documented in the chapter called, “It Turned Out that Kevin Was Lying.” In answer, Cheney said this about McCarthy’s replacement: “He’s smarter.”
Even though she also told Wallace that “the way we defeat this assault” on the U.S. Constitution “is through the truth,” she also knows very well that we not only are “sleepwalking into dictatorship,” but have no interest in a wake-up call.
Trump supporters don’t want to know that his election fraud claims never had any basis in fact, or that he seriously considered trying to get the military to help him hold onto power anyway. They do not want to be reminded of Officer Michael Fanone hearing the mob chant, “Get his gun! Kill him with his own gun!” as he was “electrocuted again and again and again with a Taser.”
They don’t want to be led through Trump’s premeditated 7-part plan to overthrow an election he knew he had lost.
Many of her now former constituents, she writes, revealed in sometimes angry conversations with her that they “were unaware of the violence on Jan. 6. They believed the day to have been almost entirely peaceful. They read The Epoch Times, a “news” website that presents extremely slanted reporting in the guise of a straightforward media outlet. … They watched almost exclusively Fox News or Newsmax or OAN. As a result, they were completely unaware of what had actually happened.”
She knows that “it can be tough to learn that you’ve been fooled, tricked by those you trusted. That you let yourself be deceived. The natural reaction is denial, and a refusal to listen to anything to the contrary.”
But she’s going to tell them anyway, and so am I. Because if Trump returns to office and starts doing exactly what he says he’s going to do, which is to ignore and then become the rule of law, the thrill of owning the libs will not have been worth it.
The closest thing to a laugh line in Cheney’s book is when the White House calls, just as she’s trying to head off a coup, to tell her she’s disinvited to the congressional White House Christmas party.
You might also cluck darkly over the absurdity of her male colleagues telling her how hurtful they find her whole attitude. “It’s like you’re playing in the biggest game of your life,” Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania told her, “and you look up and see your girlfriend sitting on the opponent’s side!”
In her willingness to throw herself in between our democracy and the narcissist that ate her party, Cheney is sitting on America’s side, and the least we can do is read her book. Let no one say that they weren’t warned.
Melinda Henneberger is a columnist for The Kansas City (Mo.) Star.
