October 2017.

     With the indictments in late October 2017 of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, as well as the guilty plea of “coffee boy” George Papadopoulos for false statements to the FBI, it became more difficult for GOP luminaries to call the Mueller investigation baseless.  This did nothing to whet their appetite to hold forth publicly.  The fear of offending The Grand Pooh Bah was well ingrained a year into the Trump era.

The Washington Post detailed the evasions concocted by the Republicans and their craven reluctance to face the press.  The letter comments on these proclivities sarcastically.

Here’s the article by Karoun Demirjian and Sean Sullivan:

Karoun Demirjian and Sean Sullivan, “GOP Leaders’ Strategy:  Avoidance,” The Washington Post, 31 October 2017, A6 (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/tablet/v1.1/20171031/A06_RE_EZ_DAILY_20171031.pdf).

Here’s the letter:

“The GOP’s Disheartening Response,” The Washington Post, 3 November 2017, A20 (www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gops-disheartening-lack-of-courage/2017/11/02/f362e084-bf4b-11e7-9294-705f80164f6e_story.html).

The Extended Cut.

Editors have been gentle in tweaking my submissions; however, a phrase was dropped from this letter, probably because it’s pretentiously obnoxious.  The obnoxiousness warrants its preservation.  Here’s the unredacted sentence:

     “GOP senators and congressmen, many of whom doubtless see Churchill or Thatcher in the mirror during their morning ablutions, offer a dispiriting spectacle. . .”