Lacking in judgment
Back in June, our junior senator was first in line to file an amicus brief to immediately exonerate disgraced Gen. Michael Flynn from his felony conviction of lying about Russia. Six months later we hear that Flynn put forth the idea in an Oval Office meeting for Trump to declare martial law in the battleground states to rerun the election. This at the same time we also hear that Russia has been hacking major portions of our government for months.
From Cotton's pronouncement of the covid-19 virus being weaponized by China to this, he is building a legacy of questionable judgment that will not soon be forgotten. All of this together just seems so surreal, in a really bad way.
DAVE DINGLER
North Little Rock
Worked against state
Leslie Rutledge is a disgrace to the office of Arkansas Attorney General. Known much less for helping constituents than for political stunts to enhance her name recognition, Rutledge joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his bizarre lawsuit urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election results to give Donald Trump a second term.
It doesn't matter to Rutledge that Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 on securities fraud charges or that in October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office signed written allegations accusing him of "bribery, abuse of office and other crimes."
Nor does it matter to Rutledge that Trump's baseless claims of election fraud have been debunked not only by numerous Republican state elections officials, but also by the U.S. attorney general, and dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign have been rejected by judges in both state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rutledge, nevertheless, appeared perfectly comfortable with the prospect of denying millions of voters and military families the right to have their absentee ballots counted.
This "servant of the people" also proved that she has no qualms about denying health insurance to her constituents when she joined Trump in a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which, if it succeeds, would cause 230,000 Arkansans to lose health coverage.
The ACA has been a lifeline during the pandemic, providing coverage for many of the thousands of Arkansans who have lost their jobs or experienced sharp drops in income in the recession.
It is terrifying to me that Rutledge announced that she will be a candidate for governor in 2022.
A question for Arkansas voters: Why should Leslie Rutledge, who has so frequently and so publicly worked against the interests of Arkansans, be granted the honor and privilege of your vote?
ALICE STOVALL
North Little Rock
Thought experiment
Does anyone else think that Trump would not be quite so rabid about his loss to Biden if he could overturn one state's results so that Biden would not have beaten him by the same "landslide" electoral college count as his over Hillary?
JULIA FOSTER
Monticello
Pied pipers of party
After reading Victor Davis Hanson's column on "Paths for Donald Trump" and how wrong we were to investigate the current POTUS, the lack of total honesty still amazes. Although the Steele dossier was poorly managed, it has nothing to counteract all the known facts of the case of Russia's influence with Trump. Manafort passing polling data to a known Russian agent, Junior asking for info on Clinton's emails, Jared Kushner being present at the meeting, Kushner asking for a private back line to Russia, the lack of information on Trump's debt and his refusal to reveal his taxes and so on reveals why we investigated. Any U.S. citizen would be investigated with any of these connections to Russia, much less a potential and eventual president.
Since Trump is now pretty much known to be $400 million in debt (we don't know to whom), what happens to a disgruntled one-termer who has all the secrets of the U.S. government (as well as his family) and has to deal with paying off this debt? It scares me that the next Republican scam might be to allow Trump to align with Putin for debt forgiveness. What does he have to bargain with except our secrets and our democracy? He has demonstrated that he doesn't care about our democracy.
Please quit following all the pied pipers of the Republican Party because the cliff might be deeper than we thought.
MICHAEL CONNAUGHTON
Vilonia
Gracious hospitality
St. John's Seminary in the Heights neighborhood in Little Rock has always allowed visitors to stroll its expansive grounds, but I've never appreciated this generosity more than since the pandemic hit this spring.
I'm sure that the increased traffic, including walkers, parents with strollers, dog walkers, and bicyclists of all ages has increased the workload for the groundskeepers and seminary staff. This safe, beautiful green space has been a welcome haven for the housebound of all ages.
Thank you to the Catholic Diocese and everyone associated with the seminary for your gracious hospitality.
JULIE KELLER
Little Rock