Rand Paul vs Liz Cheney

For the last few days, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) have been bashing each other on Twitter. Yesterday their Twitter feud spilled over to the press and even TV... at least in Wyoming, where Paul called into KTWO to slap Liz around a little (video above). Paul: "I really think that the Western Republicans, the ones that I’ve met in Wyoming and the ones I’ve met throughout the West, are very, very independent. They’re tired of spending $50 billion a year in Afghanistan. They’re tired of building roads in Afghanistan. They’re tired of $45 million gas stations in Afghanistan and $90 million hotels. I think a lot of people in Wyoming would rather see that money spent at home."

So... what's this all about? Cheney is one of the most despised politicians in Washington, a truculent asshole very much like her parents. She chairs the the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in GOP House leadership and has reinterpreted the job to "vicious Republican attack dog." Mike Mike Enzi retiring next year, she's been threatening to give up her at-large House seat and move over to the Senate. That primary is already starting to look like a real circus, featuring former far right crazy Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, crackpot billionaire Foster Friess, and every Republican politician from the most right-wing state who doesn't have a job at the moment. Republican senators would rather she stay in the House, although no one is especially enthusiastic about anyone lining up to replace the popular and well-liked Enzi, who also detests Cheney.

This brouhaha between Paul and Cheney started in midweek when he called her and her father warmongers and she responded by tweeting that he puts "terrorists first, America second." He's already endorsed her probable Senate opponent, Lummis. Friday morning Politico reporter Melanie Zanona penned a column, Liz Cheney throws lighter fluid on feud with Rand Paul, so that everyone in DC who wasn't already following this now can. Yesterday, at the GOP House retreat she noted that "There are issues surrounding whether you put America first, as Trump does, or if you blame America first, as Rand Paul does and has for years."

Not to be outdone, Paul on Friday afternoon tweeted: "Few people have been as wrong on foreign policy over the last few years as the neocons and @Liz_Cheney. The Twitter exchange represents a real and significant debate on the future of our foreign policy between realists like myself and #NeverTrumper neoconservatives like Cheney."

The spat comes days after the ouster of Trump’s hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, which has prompted a round of jockeying among the GOP’s hawks and doves to bend the president’s ear on foreign policy. And it also comes after Trump said last weekend he canceled secret peace talks with the Taliban that were planned for Camp David.

Paul, a libertarian senator from Kentucky, fired the first shot, sharing an article criticizing Cheney and asking why “neocons continue to advocate for endless wars.” Cheney, an interventionist-minded member of the Armed Services Committee, hit back, saying, “I stand with @realDonaldTrump and our men and women in uniform who will never surrender to terrorists, unlike @RandPaul, who seems to have forgotten that today is 9/11.”

The fight then devolved, with Cheney jabbing Paul about being a "big loser" in the 2016 primary and Paul's top aide stepping in to call Cheney a "chickenhawk." And Paul himself trolled Cheney with a thread highlighting all the times Cheney has split with Trump, an effort seen by some of Cheney’s allies aimed at damaging her prospects in a potential Senate bid.

...The feud between Cheney and Paul runs deep. Their fathers-- former Vice President Dick Cheney and failed presidential candidate and former Rep. Ron Paul-- served alongside each other in the House and disagreed over foreign policy issues.