Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
In the grand tradition of Rich Lowry's masturbatory reaction to Palin's winking, I give you Republican consultant Michael Goldfarb talking about Liz Cheney:
"I was excited about Palin; I'm more excited about Liz," he says. "The same sort of excitement you get when you hear her father, except she's this petite blonde with five kids ... There's just something about her. You see that response across the activist portion of the party. It's the response you saw to Palin ... She gets people worked up. She connects to people. She is in harmony with where the base seems to be. She's right on the issues."You have a little crush on her," he gushes. "It's hard not to."
Okay, seriously. Try typing with one hand. I bet there's more DNA in his keyboard than in the OJ trial.
Politics
Comments
Ouch.
Posted by: Imrryr | March 11, 2010 9:36 AM
Isn't Liz Cheney also a lesbian with a lesbian lover? I wonder how the base would feel about that, assuming I am not misremembering that tidbit.
Posted by: Scott L. | March 11, 2010 9:37 AM
Nope, that's her younger sister Mary.
Posted by: dogmeatib | March 11, 2010 9:44 AM
Scott@2,
I thought that at first too, but I'd misremembered: her younger sister, Mary, is a lesbian.
Posted by: dbh | March 11, 2010 9:44 AM
Get used to it, folks -- this is the level the radical right are at. ALL of their policies have failed; the mythical golden age of lily-white-small-town-family-values-America doesn't even stand up as a credible fantasy anymore; and they can't blame "liberals" anymore; so now they're retreating into pure childish emotion and looking for "hot mommy" figures to push the right buttons and raise the right emotions to shield them from having to actually think or act responsible.
Posted by: Raging Bee | March 11, 2010 9:45 AM
"The same sort of excitement you get when you hear her father..."
Hey Rich, why don't you just ring up Liz? I'm sure she'd organise a date for you with her dad. - Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 11, 2010 9:49 AM
a crush on palin?
why does it have to be that with every female in the public eye, a portion of the discussion is about her looks?
that gets to be irritating.
(i have an idea as to why, but was just venting.)
((no, not a knee-jerk, "everybody's sexist", cuz what's wrong with being sexy?))
(((credit spinal tap)))
Posted by: VikingMoose | March 11, 2010 10:07 AM
DingoJack @ 10:
But bring tissues, I've heard Dick likes to shoot in people's faces.
Posted by: Phillip IV | March 11, 2010 10:09 AM
Phillip IV - Looks like you got there before me (stay where you are, I'll get a towel). :) - Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 11, 2010 10:15 AM
That's what gets me about the Republicans. They prop up these ignorant, venom filled, hateful women as "attractive" female leaders. I find them disturbing and unattractive. Hurtful to the public discourse, and a detriment to both women and politics.
When did a woman's appearance become important to their thoughts on issues? Palin and Bachmann share about 20% of a brain. Liz Cheney is a shrew. No, I don't mean the old Taming of a Shrew slight, I mean she literally reminds me of the hissing little mammal, or perhaps wolverine works better, I could see her defecating on something to keep someone she didn't like from getting it.
Posted by: dogmeatib | March 11, 2010 10:16 AM
And conservative wonder why so many women don't like them. I guess they think ignoring everything but physical appearance is supposed to be a compliment, in the same way that disgusting construction workers whistling is supposed to be a compliment. If I roll my eyes any harder I'll be able to see my own brain.
Posted by: catgirl | March 11, 2010 10:40 AM
Thank you Ed. Now there's more coffee on my keyboard than on the counter at Starbucks.
Posted by: Allen | March 11, 2010 10:47 AM
What's with the conservatives in the US?
When they're in office, they're big, beefy tough guys, able to beat-up every other kid in the sand-box.
When they lose office, they need irrational mother-figures to breast-feed them, burp them and protect them from those nasty nerdy libruls who keep kicking the sands of reality in their faces.
What's with that? - confused, Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 11, 2010 10:53 AM
If not for Michael Goldfarb's connections to Dick Cheney I might suggest he was aspiring to Ron Burgundy. Instead I think he's just trying to sell Liz Cheney as the brainier replacement for Sarah Palin using the same formula. The PNAC circle-jerk that is the Cheney-Kristol apparatus seem to have moved on from Wasilla to something a little closer to home.
Posted by: mb | March 11, 2010 11:05 AM
"I bet there's more DNA in his keyboard than in the OJ trial."
EEEEEWWWWWW. How wicked of you to make me think of such things!
Posted by: momkat | March 11, 2010 11:18 AM
Jeez, it seems like every conservative male pundit in this country who isn't gay is a masochist; how else to explain the sexual thrill they get from blood-thirsty ladies?
On another note, why the hell do guys like this think its acceptable to sexualize people they don't even know in public? Would they tell the donut girl who just handed them their dozen glazed how they "can't help but have a little crush on her", or how she makes them feel little starbursts in their pants? Jesus H. Christ, and these are the people who think sexual harassment is a liberal conspiracy.
Posted by: Julian | March 11, 2010 11:43 AM
Raging Bee "and they can't blame 'liberals' anymore..."
Of course they can! That's half their platform. Always was, always will be. You can read more in my new book, Get Clinton, where I explain why our losses in Vietnam, Iran and the most recent presidential election are all Clinton's fault. It's the follow-up book to 1994's Get Carter, which said the exact same thing, but with a different (but same) president.
dogmeatib "They prop up these ignorant, venom filled, hateful women as 'attractive' female leaders."
So...Dick Cheney with boobs is not supposed to be a turn on? Oh.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 11, 2010 11:56 AM
Way to work hard for the women's vote, GOP.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | March 11, 2010 12:24 PM
Sadie @18,
They are working hard for the woman's vote. The GOP considers that women will vote as their husband tells them to and if hubby is turned on by a dimwit Palin or rabidly stupid Cheney, they will instruct their wives appropriately. That's not how it works where you live???
Posted by: MikeMa | March 11, 2010 12:33 PM
I'll be the first to admit that Sarah Palin is a good-looking woman (albeit with a shrill, grating speaking voice that can shatter wine glasses 100 miles away), but there is nothing remotely attractive I find about Liz Cheney on any conceivable level.
In fact, by comparison, I find Janet Reno to be amazingly hot.
Posted by: CHV | March 11, 2010 1:54 PM
Ed,um,ew?
Posted by: How | March 11, 2010 2:07 PM
Thanks for the clarification everyone.
@Modus17
When can we expect Get Obama?
Posted by: Scott L. | March 11, 2010 4:42 PM
2024 or so. By then the Dems will be Tea Baggers and the Republicans will have gone so far to the Right that they'll have reemerged on the Left as hardcore pinko commies. They'll almost be worth voting for.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 11, 2010 5:06 PM
...and the Republicans will have gone so far to the Right that they'll have reemerged on the Left as hardcore pinko commies.
Already happening: some right-wingers are now praising the USSR for their superior ability to keep the homos in their place; they're now taking cues from the KGB playbook (including rewriting history on the fly to suit their party line); and they've put our country in hock to the largest Communist country on the planet.
Posted by: Raging Bee | March 11, 2010 10:16 PM
Raging Bee "Already happening..."
Ah ha! So futureMo is right!
"...they're now taking cues from the KGB playbook..."
Public prisons, secret prisons, torture, show trials.
"(including rewriting history on the fly to suit their party line)"
Pah! You're using the Ivory Tower Egghead's so-called "dictionary" definition of history. History really means "whatever is politically convenient at the time". Just like Stalin, it's only the liberals who insist on changing it...from whatever the conservative version of it happens to be at the time.
That's always been the proper definition. Every Real American® knows that.
"...and they've put our country in hock to the largest Communist country on the planet."
To be fair, those commies are turning out to be pretty good capitalists. Pretty good Real Americanness™, too. They've already got the obedience to in-group authority, mistrust-slash-fear of difference/out-group, general disregard for their environment and the kind of populism that fights against the populists' own best self interest while convincing them that it's a good thing that the chocolate ration is being raised from thirty grams per month to twenty.
All they need is more beef, less rice, more Jesus and less almond-shaped eyes, and their leading lights will be talking about Real Chinesians® while wearing expensive suits and stiff hair and shooting their mouths off on other subjects they know nothing about on FoxNews in no time!
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 11, 2010 10:58 PM
Male GOPers look at Palin, Bachmann and Cheney and think, "Wow! MILFs that speak GOPese. Damn, I gotta have me one of them! Now, where's a tissue?"
Seems like there's room for a whole new genre of porn movies, especially made for male Republicans -- well, the straight ones anyway.
Posted by: wheatdogg | March 12, 2010 12:21 AM