Jumped the shark
Dear Editor:
Welp, now we know: Danny Newhouse has well and truly jumped the shark, entered La La Land, taken a running dive through the looking glass. Seems he’s tickled to death to have advocated vociferously for release of the so-called “Nunes Memo,” a flight of fiction that has been characterized, by everyone willing to pay dispassionate attention, as having the evidentiary value of a third-grader’s book report.
This is the guy we voted for because we figured Clint Didier was too much of a whacko. And Dan has done a fair job of maintaining his cover until now: by hiding from his constituents and, when unable to duck, saying nothing in particular at considerable length, he could almost fake his way to being considered one of the less toxic of D.C.’s denizens. But no more. He just joined a club that there’s no backing away from.
Look, I suspect Dan of being a reasonable guy on occasion, and of harboring at least a vestigial sense of decency. So what gives? Sure, he’s taking corporate cash and ignoring constituents, but that’s par for the course, pretty much. And he’s not nearly important enough for Putin to have the goods on him. It is a puzzlement.
Everybody’s heard the “when in a hole, stop digging” aphorism. Jason Chaffetz saw this train wreck coming and exited stage right. Now Trey Gowdy’s on his way out. It’s too slimy for even Darrell Issa, who is something of a connoisseur of slime. Freylingheusen. Corker. Flake. And a couple dozen other “Representatives” who are suddenly prepared to bail on their fur-lined foxholes in D.C., even though their party controls the whole damn government and theoretically could do what it wants.
So, Dan, what’s up? Is it the water on your side of the aisle? Or perhaps I should say “the Kool-Aid:” this is going to end up an electoral and legal Jonestown for you and your buddies. And I will applaud, loudly. On the other hand, I’d be happy to skip that celebration for one in which you all just quietly bugger off and quit breaking my country.
Alan Fahnestock, Winthrop
