a) He's been totally ineffective, accomplishing nothing but proposing more taxes (yes, those are more taxes), "reaching across the aisle" to Harry Reid, and never fighting for conservative principles. You're on the side of who the establishment wants, a milque toast nobody who goes along to get along.
b) You pointed out nationally known RINO's, I prefer nationally known conservatives who fight like Cruz and Lee. You have a problem with that?
c) a raging neo-con war slut.......great argument skippy, you'll go far with that kind of logic.
He’s been “ineffective” for YOU. Guess what? He represents me and other Wyomingites in the US Senate. You’re looking for some national savior in the US Senate, and most Senators aren’t looking to make a national name for themselves. They attend to their knitting, which is their state-level issues, and that’s what Enzi does. And, from our perspective in Wyoming, he does it well. Of our two senators, he’s the more conservative one. Barasso is a doctor, and he’s a bit less conservative.
Enzi, on state issues in Wyoming, is reliably conservative. He’s also accessible, answers letters and calls, and has a competent staff when you need something done. That’s more than I can say for the great majority of senators from any other state. He handles our local issues well. An example is that he just got the BLM to chop loose of a half-section of ground over near Powell for a shooting range. That’s the sort of thing that people in Wyoming remember.
OK, you’d like a Cruz or Lee. I can understand that. You’re not going to get that. Enzi isn’t going to become the sort of thundering voice from the pulpit you’d like, and that’s what you want.
But guess what? Liz Cheney is NOT from the Cruz/Lee mold. She never was and never will be. She’s a creature of the Beltway, her work experience is that factory of industrial-strength stupidity, the US State Department. She’s not a Tea Party Constitutionalist. Oh, she makes lots of noises like she is, but if you dig deep enough into her background, you’ll find out that she’s anything but a “small government conservative.” She’s not anything of the kind. So while she likes to listen to herself speak while in front of TV cameras, she’s going to sell you out. In a heartbeat. Just as soon as she wins any election, she’s going to pivot to the left.
As she travels this state, it is interesting to listen to and watch her speeches. She’s like a wind-up doll. Someone has programmed her with a whole bunch of sound bites and sent her off in front of a crowd, not much unlike the way Obama became famous for giving canned speeches. As soon as people start asking her deep questions about state issues, you can see her start to talk in generalities, avoiding specifics and betraying a very limited knowledge of the issues of this state. Enzi can talk to specifics of our state off the cuff.
Here in Wyoming, the single biggest issue looming over us is the Obama administration administrative jihad against coal. The Powder River Basin coal companies are some of the biggest taxpayers in the entire state, and if they take a large hit in production or prices, we’re going to take it in the teeth in the state budget. Cheney babbles about this topic, but it is clear that she really doesn’t know the coal business. She doesn’t know the players, she doesn’t know the mining business.
Enzi does - because he used to be mayor of Gillette, WY, around which the huge coal mines are located. He knows the players, the mine operators, et al - on a first-name basis. He knows the business well. He’s been a state rep, then was in the state senate. He paid his dues and got where he is because he does retail politics in a state which still rewards retail politics.
Cheney - she decided to plop herself down in Wilson, which is a very high-priced, exclusive neighborhood outside of Jackson on the very western edge of the state. It is relatively inaccessible to the rest of the state about half of the year due to weather. This signals that she intends to jet-set around, or hold lots of remote (ie, non-retail) meetings. That’s how she’s been giving interviews on local radio stations - she’s calling it in. Successful campaigners in Wyoming go to the radio station to be interviewed and take calls. Then they’ll go do a lunch or dinner in the town they’re visiting. She’s really big in the online media sphere, which is why she’s got traction with people who don’t live in Wyoming.
Enzi makes limited use of social media. He’s old-school. He (or his staff) show up in the small towns all over the state and he talks with you. In person. He talks on radio shows. He gives interviews to the press, whatever the press. Cheney, near as I can tell, is the darling of the national and DC press (she has, after all, spent most of her adult life in Virginia, not Wyoming), Sean Hannity and social media. That’s not going to cut it here in Wyoming, but boy oh boy, it sure does seem to whip up ‘conservatives’ from outside our state.
Guess what? All you guys whipped up by her use of social media outside our state can’t vote in our election.
I’ll say it again: She’s a war slut. She would dearly love to get the US embroiled in more and more conflicts in the middle east. Earlier this year, before the polling started coming out, she was hell-bent on intervention in Syria. She was a signature on a letter from the Foreign Policy Initiative and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (along with 55 other “conservative” leaders, including Karl Rove, et al) encouraging Obama to get involved in Syria’s civil war - in February.
Then this past month, she comes out and claims that she “would have voted against involvement in Syria.” Sorry, but she can’t un-sign that letter to Obama. Her complete 180 about-face hasn’t gone unnoticed here.
She was beating up Enzi on the topic of Syria and the middle east with radio and web ads here in Wyoming - that we needed better leadership from the US Senate on foreign affairs from Wyoming and all this pablum. We don’t need “more leadership” from the US Senate on foreign affairs. We mostly need Senators to STFU about foreign affairs, and have on foreign policy established for the US out of the executive branch.
Enzi was very wary of getting us into Syria from the get-go. He was telling people who were asking him about the issue wasn’t clear, that there were no reliable allies, etc. Basically, Enzi’s position was what polling started showing in late August and early September. Enzi didn’t need to do an about-face, because he wasn’t shooting his mouth off months ago on the topic.
Cheney reversed herself once the polling came out here in Wyoming and it showed that the residents of this state were not only against intervention in Syria, but they were of the “hell no!” level of polling against getting involved in Syria. When she’s talking at various GOP gatherings here in Wyoming, she keeps harping on foreign policy. Guess what? Most Republicans in Wyoming (and since most people in Wyoming are Republicans, that means most of the people in Wyoming) want to hear no more about foreign policy issues, especially after the last 10 years. Too many young people from Wyoming have gone off on these foreign mis-adventures, to no good end. Since most of the Democrats in Wyoming want nothing to do with any more foreign adventures Lizzie’s pro-war platform is falling on deaf ears.
The guys I talk to who here in Wyoming who have been in Iraq and Afghanistan all say two things:
1. They are/were proud to serve.
2. Nothing, absolutely nothing, we did was worth the price in the lives of their now-dead buddies or their own wounds.
And most of them say:
3. As soon as we pull out, it’ll all revert back to a shambolic mess. And that’s why it wasn’t worth the costs.
When this is all over, absent some huge gaffe on Enzi’s part (which I seriously doubt), he’s going to coast to a win in the primary. Enzi didn’t get to 70% approval ratings in this state by pissing people off. People like Mike Enzi, and he represents us rather well, which is why we keep sending him back.