Weigel

Cheney’s Last Stand

Neoconservatism could use some new neo.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

My new piece from last night explains why the growing libertarian/America First wing of the Republican Party is itching to destroy the Cheney Renaissance in Wyoming.

Back in 2011, in a joint television appearance (Liz helped her father with his memoirs), the Cheneys praised the killing of American-born Anwar al-Awlaki as a “very good strike,” and asked when President Obama would “go back and correct” his prior heresies about Cheney-ism.

He won’t, of course, and neither will Paul. In his first book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington, Paul relishes in how he humiliated the neoconservatives who came after him. “In a sense, Cheney’s aide was right,” writes Paul, referring to that gather-your-armies email from Cesar Conda. “My measured and conservative views on foreign policy, rooted in the Founding and informed by the Constitution, are indeed dangerous to neoconservative ideologues who are always anxious to find new excuses to get us involved in conflicts abroad.”

Paul’s been mocking Liz Cheney since before she got in the race, but the foreign policy aspect of the fight has remained pretty sublimated. Until now! Come on, it’s obvious—when the “neoconservative” bench in the Senate consists of three Republicans with immigration stances that the base can’t stand, the movement needs to promote newer, louder voices.

John Dickerson has more.