Greg Jayne’s editorial (“Herrera Beutler’s balancing act,” July 21) analogized Jaime Herrera Beutler’s recent statement decrying Trump’s racist tweet against four congresswomen of color and her subsequent vote against condemning his words, as her walking a tightrope. I’ve often depicted her as a “mugwump” sitting on a fence with her smiling mug on one side and her “wump” firmly on the other side. It’s a precarious perch she has often landed upon. Another example would be her many votes to kill the Affordable Care Act, taking health care away from tens of millions of Americans, then sponsoring legislation to provide benefits to a tiny sliver of sympathetic Americans, e.g., for children in a rare circumstance.
While I believe she’s fallen off the fence (or the tightrope) many times before, landing awkwardly on her wump, this time the law of gravity cannot be denied. She has clearly lost her balance and landed among an off-balance flock of alternately smiling and snarling Republicans, among whom no one can any longer claim to be anything but a Trump sycophant. Birds of a feather flock together, and her well-parsed words and smiling mug can no longer save her. You own this, Jaime. You voted against condemning Trump’s racist words. We’ll not forget.
