Newhouse vote took guts

Rep. Dan Newhouse’s vote to impeach the president took guts. There’s no two ways about that. Representing a red meat Republican district, he rose to meet his obligation to defend the Constitution when he saw what clearly took place in the capitol on Jan. 6 — a mob incited by the president, angered after months of listening to him insist that that there was no way he could lose, unless the other side cheated and then direct them toward the People’s House.

Newhouse, newly elected to another term, may have enough time on his side to quell the anger of those who don’t want to see what he saw, but there’s a good chance he could be “primaried” in the next election because he stood on principal.

Not that he’s ever before been so clear-eyed about President Trump. He stood with those on Jan. 5 who said that as “constitutional conservatives” they’d go ahead and certify the nation’s election results sent in from the 50 states. Not because it was a lot of nonsense that 50 separate states and the myriad officials and volunteers and patriots making those elections happen would collude to steal it, but just because it was none of their business.

That reasoning, if you can call it that, indicated Newhouse was still in thrall to Trump, whom liberals have long erroneously misjudged as stupid or crazy.

He’s neither, but he is craven. Trump would have stopped at nothing, not even civil war, to hold on to power, and he was skilled enough at propaganda and the long con to cause it, almost.

And we’re not done with this chapter of the history United States.

That’s why we need Newhouse, and all the other leaders who, like so many among us, could only see and hear what they needed from Donald Trump while remaining blind to his unctuous ambition, to open his eyes before the next time such a threat comes slithering our way.

Our representative in Congress is still defending the indefensible position that something was wrong with the vote count, but that reality may eventually dawn too.

Until then, Rep. Dan Newhouse at least deserves credit for taking a very hard and principled stand at a very critical time.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher