Sack this grandstander

I certainly am happy to see that Michael Baumgartner is on the job, if by “on the job” we, of course, mean that a sitting state senator would take the time to politically grandstand for the sake of a football player who beat up another student.

I’m sure we can be absolutely positive that if some random fraternity member at WSU who had no affiliation with Cougar football had been suspended for the same reason, Baumgartner would have been just as Johnny-on-the-spot, especially since it involves his favorite activity: threatening a state institution with funding cuts whilst throwing a public tantrum (and then, in true Trumpian fashion, immediately denying afterwards that he did any such thing). The Party of Personal Responsibility, indeed.

In all seriousness, this episode speaks not only to the senator’s well-known bullying nature, but the tiresome self-promotion that increasingly appears to be Baumgartner’s only real interest in the office. That he desires greener pastures has been obvious for some time; here’s to hoping that in two years, he will be allowed to make a triumphant return to the private sector. The 6th District deserves better.

Timothy Herold

Spokane