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In January, after then-House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting an insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, more than a few GOP lawmakers said her partisan betrayal could not stand. Her detractors called for her ouster from the party's leadership.
Initially, that effort failed badly, largely because Cheney enjoyed the backing of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). As we've discussed, after rank-and-file Republican members voted to keep Cheney in her position, the GOP leader told reporters, "People can have differences of opinion.... Liz has a right to vote her conscience. At the end of the day, we will be united."
That was five months ago. Today, "united" is not the first adjective that comes to mind.
In May, McCarthy turned on Cheney with a vengeance, and the Wyoming congresswoman was soon after ousted as House Republican Conference chair for, among other things, taking a stand in support of democracy and failing to honor Donald Trump's Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election.
This week, tensions reached a new level when Cheney voted to create a special select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack -- she was one of only two House Republicans to do so -- and a day later, accepted an offer from House Speaker Nany Pelosi (D-Calif.) to serve on that panel, even after McCarthy told his members to ignore any such overtures.
The New York Times reports that intra-party fallout now appears inevitable.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, responded angrily to Ms. Cheney's decision to accept the post, calling it "shocking" and implying that she could lose her seat on the Armed Services Committee as payback. "I don't know in history where someone would get their committee assignments from the speaker and then expect to get them from the conference as well," Mr. McCarthy said.
The House GOP leader added that Cheney did not confer with him before accepting Pelosi's offer. "Maybe she's closer to her than us," McCarthy said of Cheney.
On the surface, the idea that these circumstances are "shocking" is silly. The United States' seat of government faced its deadliest attack in more than two centuries; Congress is seeking answers about the insurrectionist riot; a House Speaker invited a House member to serve on an investigatory committee; and the member agreed.
Why is this "shocking"? Because for the GOP leader, there isn't one House of Representatives; there's two: one for Democrats and another for Republicans. As the minority leader sees it, Cheney has a responsibility -- not to the country, not to the rule of law, and certainly not to the truth, but to her party's tribal vision as defined by Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy sees the job of House Speaker as a glorified majority leader, which means, in his vision, Cheney should have nothing to do with Pelosi's "team." As such, Cheney must not agree to participate in an inquiry McCarthy's team is desperate to squelch for the most pernicious of reasons: the truth might be inconvenient for Republicans, their base, and their failed former president.
The question now is what, exactly, the minority leader intends to do about it.
As we discussed yesterday, if McCarthy follows through on his threats, and punishes Cheney for audaciously acting like a member of Congress, he'll be hard pressed to explain why Cheney's interest in the truth warrants punishment, while he remains indifferent toward House Republicans accused of serious wrongdoing.
If McCarthy backs down, after making private and public threats, he'll reinforce impressions of weakness and do further damage to his woeful credibility.
Either way, the investigation into the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol is moving ahead -- and there's nothing the minority leader can do about it.