Media Rehabilitate Cheney Family: From ‘Darth Vader’ to ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’

The mainstream media have found reason to rehabilitate the image of the Cheney family, whose patriarch was once derided as the Star Wars villain Darth Vader, and whose scion, Liz Cheney, is now being portrayed as the Jedi master Obi-wan Kenobi.

The elder Cheney, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was referred to Darth Vader — the lord of the fearsome Dark Side — because of his machiavellian nature and because of the presumed evil of his foreign policy decisions, such as the Iraq War.

Cheney had once been widely respected as a member of Congress from Wyoming, and then as Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush during Operation Desert Storm. He then worked as CEO of a defense contractor, Halliburton.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Cheney was tapped to lead the search committee for a vice presidential candidate. To the shock of many observers, he selected himself, dismissing concerns about his poor cardiac health. Democrats mocked the apparent self-serving nature of Cheney’s decision — but he had the last laugh after the Bush/Cheney ticket held on to win the election after a controversial recount in Florida.

In office, Cheney was portrayed in the media as the manipulative force behind George W. Bush, and the person really in charge of the government — an impression confirmed by countless anecdotes that emerged about the inner workings of the White House. With the launch of the Iraq War, he was portrayed in an even more sinister light. Just as Darth Vader was the secret power behind the throne of the Emperor, so, too, was Cheney supposedly the lord of darkness running America’s imperial ambitions. Cheney took it in stride, even embracing the Darth Vader image, as a joke. But to many in the media, and in liberal America, it was no laughing matter: he was deeply loathed.

Then came Trump, and the evident distaste that the Bush and Cheney families had for him. That feeling deepened after Trump won the presidency and began implementing an “America First” foreign policy that eschewed foreign military entanglements.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was elected to the House after a disastrous attempt to dislodge Wyoming’s incumbent Senator, rose quickly through the ranks of Republican leadership and became one of Trump’s enduring critics on foreign policy — even though her predictions of disaster never came to fruition. After the Capitol riot in January 2021, Cheney voted to impeach him — but was still elected to the chairmanship of the House Republican Conference, a sign of enduring tolerance within the ranks.

That was when Cheney decided to make Trump her focus, to the exclusion of all other priorities. She collaborated with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the January 6 Committee, accepting an appointment to the investigation after Pelosi took the unprecedented step of rejecting the official nominees of the House Republican leadership. In her post, Cheney recited Democratic Party propaganda and smeared innocent people who simply happened to work in the prior administration.

That drew the ire of conservatives — but the admiration of the media and the left. As she faced a strong primary challenge from Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, Democrats began volunteering for, and donating to, Cheney’s campaign. And when it became clear that she was likely to lose on August 16, they began portraying her as a martyr.

The Washington Post‘s Paul Kane described her imminent political demise as a new “beginning.” His colleague, columnist Jonathan Capehart took the resurrection theme even further, comparing her to Obi-wan Kenobi — the Jedi master who allows Darth Vader to kill him so that he may join the force in the afterlife and exert influence from beyond the physical world. In “Liz Cheney is the Obi-Wan to Trump’s Darth Vader,” Capehart wrote:

Star Wars fans, remember that scene in “Episode IV: A New Hope” when Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Sith lord Darth Vader are light-sabering it out on the Death Star? Kenobi and Vader are monologuing over the crackle of their clashing weapons when Kenobi declares, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Then, in an act of self-sacrifice he hopes will hasten the destruction of the evil Empire, Kenobi allows Vader to do just that.

A version of this battle is playing out in real life with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as Kenobi and former president Donald Trump as Vader. Now, I realize that Cheney’s father, former vice president Dick Cheney, has traditionally been known as Darth Vader, what with the Iraq War and “enhanced interrogation” techniques and all that. But work with me, people.

…

After Obi-Wan died, he didn’t come back to beat Vader himself. Cheney, should she run, wouldn’t stand much of a chance of beating Trump. But the old Jedi rejoined the mystical Force, and it’s his energy that helped turn the tide of the war ravaging the galaxy. As a Force ghost, he also guided other opponents of the Empire in their resistance. Could Cheney do the same?

The speculation is that if Cheney ran for president in 2024, she could not beat Trump for the Republican nomination, but could earn enough electoral votes as a third-party candidate to deny him a majority and a return to the White House.

Thus has the Cheney family been rehabilitated for political expediency — from the villains of Star Wars to the heroes. And the voters, presumably, are the Ewoks and Jawas — little creatures, slaughtered amid the battles among those of greater stature.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.