Margie Ferris’ Sept. 5 letter “Criticism is misguided” is genuinely misguided. Ferris reasons that Jim Moeller’s statement that Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s, R-Camas, family has gotten in the way of her attending congressional sessions is a statement that a mom has no place in Congress.
Everyone who can read knows that Herrera Beutler’s obligation as a mother to take care of a desperately ill child has caused repeated absences from her job as a congresswoman. As soon as she knew that care of her child would render her incapable of doing the job she was elected to do, she should have resigned.
But she didn’t. Why would she? That would have put her in the same boat as many Americans: watching a stack of unpaid medical bills pile up. Instead, she took full advantage of the medical and other benefits available through congressional membership while not doing the job for which she received those benefits. That is what Moeller meant, not that motherhood itself disqualifies a woman from serving in Congress.
Ferris’ twisting of what Moeller said is exactly what we have too much of in today’s politics and don’t need any more.
