The person who is the most credible answer to the GOP's manhood problem is a woman: Liz Cheney.

Wyoming's lone congresswoman is widely loathed by acolytes of Donald Trump. Certainly Hawley has not sought to join her in confronting the former president or demanding accountability for the ways his claims of election fraud led to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. But it would be hard to argue that Cheney does not represent "courage, and independence and assertiveness."

Many people will be uncomfortable viewing these admirable qualities through the prism of gender. Standing firm on principle, and doing the right thing even when there may be a high cost to doing so, are qualities anyone should aspire to -- no matter whether they are male, female or reject binary gender categories altogether.

The important point, however, is that many conservatives are comfortable linking gender and personal traits like toughness. Liz Cheney is plainly one of those conservatives.

Recall her rejoinder to Sen. Ted Cruz, after the Texan accused Cheney last year of suffering from "Trump derangement syndrome." Cheney mocked Cruz for groveling toward Trump even though he has in the past attacked Cruz's own family members. "Trump broke Ted Cruz," Cheney told CNN. "A real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution."

Recall also a Cheney aide's taunt of Rep. Matt Gaetz, a camera-loving Trump warrior, who traveled to Wyoming to urge voters to reject Cheney and demand her resignation: "Gaetz can leave his beauty bag at home. In Wyoming, the men don't wear make-up."