Nepotism in Defense of Torture

Andrew Sullivan on Liz Cheney's abrupt exit from a Wyoming Senatorial race on The Daily Dish.

But can we please, please find a way to limit the role of pure nepotism in American politics? I know it’s as old as the republic, but it’s just one of those weird, strange things in a country of well over 300 million people, with a robust and rowdy political scene, that it picks the sons and daughters or wives of previous pols and just keeps running them, like mini-royals. It’s even worse in Liz Cheney’s case because much of her agenda is designed (like much of her father’s classless public eruptions these past five years) to maintain a legacy for the former vice-president that isn’t just presiding over the worst national security breach since Pearl Harbor, losing two wars at massive expense, and committing blatant war crimes and bragging about them.

 I don’t think the voters of Wyoming should have their Congressional representation hijacked to protect one of the worst vice-presidents in history from getting the historical obloquy he so richly deserves. I’m sorry if that sounds cruel. But I’m not proposing to mock-bury Cheney in a tiny box or string him up like a carcass in an abattoir to make his very existence a living hell. That’s his mojo – and his daughter’s.