A Tale of Two Votes (One of Them a Secret), by Chad Groening, Steve Jordahl

Two votes on Thursday involved the future roles of two GOP House members – and neither result is pleasing conservative observers.

In one case, a former Texas political leader finds it “shameful” that House Republicans overwhelmingly rejected a call to punish a high-ranking member of their own party for her disloyalty to President Donald Trump. By a secret ballot vote of 145-61, Republicans defeated an effort by staunch conservatives in the party to remove Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) from her number-three leadership position in the wake of her vote last month to impeach President Trump.

Cheney is a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a fixture of the party establishment. She was one of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last month. And in a closed-door session she was unrepentant, saying “I won’t apologize for the vote.”  …