STEVE HAYWARD: Republicans for Suicide.
The case of Dick Cheney is even more curious than most never Trumpers because his claim that Trump represents the most serious threat to the Constitution ever raises a question: What is the premise of that hyperbole? Is it that the executive branch has grown too powerful? Well yes—heartily agree. Yet the paradox here is that Trump in his first term kept trying to get Congress to step up and assert its constitutional powers to solve some of our major problems, rather than using executive ukase as Obama and Biden liked to do (and no doubt Harris will too, if she wins). And Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court have struck the most serious blows against executive power, especially in striking down the Chevron Doctrine.
I wonder if Cheney agrees with that decision. If the executive branch is too powerful to be trusted in the hands of Donald Trump, maybe Cheney ought to look in the mirror a bit longer. After all, as both a congressman in the 1980s, and then as vice president, Cheney was one of the leading champions of maximum executive power, and produced serious work in support of the “unitary executive” idea.
In the past, all Republican presidents or presidential candidates were called Hitler by Democratic politicians and their operatives with bylines while they ran or were in office, and then rehabilitated as thoughtful elder statesmen once there was a new Hitler who needed attacking. But now that we have former Republicans endorsing the current Democratic presidential candidate, it places their opponents’ past rhetoric in sharp perspective. Why should we believe their crazy rantings now, knowing that they’ll find astonishing levels of Strange New Respect™ a few years later?
SUPERCUT!
Harris: I'm proud to be endorsed by the Dark Lord himself! pic.twitter.com/ifpLk1W0DJ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 12, 2024
Or as the Hill exclaimed on Tuesday: How the GOP’s Darth Vader turned into Luke Skywalker.
Incidentally, as the Spectator’s “Cockburn” asked in February of 2020: Why do NeverTrumpers think they can run the Democratic party? The arrogance follows wherever they go.
UPDATE: Everything seemingly is spinning out of control!* AP is quick to provide redemption to Cheney:
Meanwhile, from America’s Newspaper of Record:
