By Tom Lubnau, columnnist
Tom Lubnau, a Republican, is the former Speaker of the House in the Wyoming Legislature
Joe Biden has made it clear — he wants to destroy Wyoming businesses. He is doing everything he can to stop the use of coal.
Being the guy in charge of 75% of the minerals in our state, Biden has done everything in his power to shut down exploration for oil and gas. Attacks on the agriculture industry will be next.
The effect of his actions is to deprive Wyoming of mineral royalties from those federal lands, which translates into reduced funding for the education of our children – reduced funding that amounts to tens of millions of dollars, not to mention the good jobs Wyoming’s people will lose.
If Joe Biden has his way, Wyoming will be an empty park full of unemployed government dependents.
Wyoming, being the least populated state, only has one United States Representative — out of four hundred thirty-five members.
Once in a generation, we elect someone to represent us who has the experience, connections and fund-raising ability to rise to the level of leadership in the House.
Currently, our representative, Liz Cheney, is the number 3 person in the Republican caucus. She carries more influence and power than just being one of four hundred thirty-five.
And for four years, she has made tens of thousands of decisions that have helped Wyoming. She is our franchise quarterback.
I do not agree with her decision to support impeachment, and I don’t like how she handled it. She made a mistake, and she deserves to hear from us.
But, I urge my friends and neighbors to be slow to toss her to the sidelines. Out of tens of thousands of decisions, we don’t like one. So, we want to throw her out? What do we get in return?
Before we make the decision to toss her, we should evaluate the choices for her replacement.
Fancy-pants hard line conservatives, who spout political rallying cries will not rise in leadership. Those pettifoggers will serve as ineffective blabbermouths who spew out magical words of political incantation, but get nothing done.
In a time of crisis in Wyoming, where the President wants to destroy our state and many of the people in it, we have to carefully evaluate who has the skills necessary to protect our interests.
Is it the smooth talker who tells us what we want to hear, or the person who has to courage to stand on her convictions, we need? Who can best represent our interests?
In full disclosure, I did not support Liz Cheney when she first ran. I worked hard for my friend Tim Stubson.
In the four years she has been in D.C., she has risen to a position of influence to help stave off the attacks from our own government and earned my trust.
Before we put our all-star on the sidelines, we should weigh the alternatives. (The football thing is a metaphor. I am not encouraging any pro football teams to cut anyone for throwing one interception.)
Do any of the blabbermouths, opportunists or other farraginous candidates who have announced for Rep. Cheney’s seat have the chutzpah to get the job done in a time of crisis for this state?
Or, are we dumping or our franchise quarterback for one misstep teach Liz a lesson, while flushing our opportunity to have an effective voice in D.C. down the drain?
One also has to wonder why a fancy-pants legislator from Florida came to Wyoming to interfere in our election. What are the real motives in wanting to remove a Wyoming representative from leadership?
I suspect it has nothing to do with Wyoming or her people. His three hours in Cheyenne hardly gave him a chance to really know anyone here.
Before we hurt ourselves in the name of one bad decision, let’s evaluate whether anyone else can help our state the way she has in the Congress in this time of crisis.
We’ll have to search long and hard before we find someone with the political influence to defend us from the attacks of the east-coast liberal big-city commander in chief, who has no idea about the west and the people who live there.
