Pathetic logic

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers deserves all the criticism people have vented toward her on these pages over the past several weeks. The recent sad and disturbing events leading up to Jan. 6, when Congress convened to certify the electoral vote, again reveal her underlying disrespect for America’s electoral system and her craven attachment to power.

Even though eventually CMR dropped her intended plan to oppose certifying the vote — only after Trump supporters broke into the Capitol, causing bloodshed and widespread damage — her prior statements and “carefully considered” stance reveal a willingness to say anything to stay in the good graces of far right voters.

Let me imagine how she’d explain and defend her position siding with Trump in opposing the election. “Though there was no proof of widespread voter fraud, though no one stole the election, though I stood by silently while the president repeatedly lied that there was fraud and theft, though I did not stand and tell constituents the truth that the president was lying, and since millions believed the president’s lies, after all this, I am forced to take give voice to those contesting the election based on falsehoods. Falsehoods that I and others helped sustain by claiming they were valid.”

McMorris Rodgers wants us to believe she was an innocent in the mayhem and was simply doing her duty. What it does, far more loudly, is underscore how inept CMR is as a representative for all of Eastern Washington. It’s time for a change.

Tom Sowa

Spokane