Revolving Door: Fox News Hires Back Ex-Candidate Liz Cheney

Fox News has hired back Liz Cheney as a contributor after her unsuccessful Senate run. Cheney's rehiring is the latest example of the cushy platform Fox News provides for Republicans before and after they run for political office.

Cheney announced last July that she was challenging Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, and left her post as a Fox News contributor. Fox had frequently turned to Cheney on national security issues, and her appearances featured little more than the usual Republican platitudes against the Obama administration. Like others, Cheney found ways to use her Fox platform to set up her future run.

Cheney's campaign failed to gain traction, and was notable for a series of missteps, including the filing of a false application for a fishing license, and a family feud over Cheney's opposition to marriage equality. Cheney received support from Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Andrea Tantaros. She dropped out of the race in January, citing family health issues.

The former Bush administration official returned to Fox News as a contributor on the April 6 edition of Fox News Sunday. Little changed, as Cheney defended Bush against a Senate report criticizing Bush's torture program, and claimed that that legislators should spend more time investigating the already thoroughly investigated Benghazi. PolitiFact criticized Cheney for falsely claiming the “numbers of people that support Obamacare and like it have been steadily dropping.”

Cheney joins a long list of Republicans who have found a home at Fox News after unsuccessful campaigns. That list includes Herman Cain, Al D'Amato, Mike Huckabee, John LeBoutillier, KT McFarland, Angela McGlowan, Oliver North, Sarah Palin, Jeanine Pirro, Pete Snyder, and Allen West. Keith Ablow and Geraldo Rivera both considered, but decided against recent campaigns, while Scott Brown left Fox in March to run for Senate in his newly adopted state of New Hampshire.

Both McGlowan and Snyder were Fox News contributors who left the network to run for office, and were subsequently rehired. On the flipside, former contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were not hired back after their presidential runs (Gingrich criticized Fox News during the campaign, prompting Fox News head Roger Ailes to claim he's angling for a job with CNN -- where Gingrich is now a host).