Newhouse’s principled vote

I first met Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse in his office about 15 years ago when he was my Washington state representative and I was advocating for funding of after-school programs. Although I often disagreed with him, he always did his homework — he thoroughly read my emails prior to meeting with me. In this he stood out from my other Republican state representative at the time. I still subscribe to Newhouse’s newsletter emails.

I always found Newhouse very well-informed, straightforward, principled and honest. Thus I was not surprised by his decision to vote for impeachment of former president Trump. As argued by some of Newhouse’s unhappy constituents (Spokesman-Review, Jan. 26), U.S. representatives do have an obligation to represent their constituents; however, they have a much higher obligation to follow the Constitution.

Our country needs a legitimate Republican Party willing to make fact-based and courageous actions such as the recent one by Newhouse. Otherwise, the Republican Party will either be destroyed or will remain vulnerable to any lying, bigoted, intimidating and aspiring dictator, as has characterized the behavior of most congressional Republicans, including our own Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the past four years.

Norm Luther

Spokane