Dear Editor
Thank you, Congressman Jason Smith (R). Your March 26 column left me dumber than I was before I read it. I had to deny so many credible, easily proven facts and break down your cow-pie post into small pieces before I could swallow it. Even then, I gagged. Washing it all down with a chug of Trump Kool-Aid was the only way I could manage. Heck, even minimal research exposes your fawning over the Supreme Leader’s choice to head the DHS after he fired one of “the best people” who “did a fantastic job, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.”
I must hand it to you, though. If you can sell that to the “shoot-you-straight, say-itlike- it-is” residents of District 8 as gospel truth, you could start your own line of merchandise, just like the multibillionaire whom you so admire. Since your goal is to deceive my family, friends and fellow hometown residents, maybe start with a fleece vest. Call it “Jason’s Golden Fleece.” It could complement those Trump Golden Sneakers. You might get yourself a cabinet appointment — loyalty over competence.
Your “man for the moment,” Markwayne Mullins, leaves the DHS in even less capable hands than it was under Kristi Noem, if that’s even possible. Noem reportedly spent $220 million in taxpayer funds on an ad campaign consisting of a handful of 60-second ads featuring her riding a $20,000 rented horse, appearing in camouflage at a detention center, with $3,781 in hair and makeup expenses. Full-length movies typically cost around $37 million to make.
And, Jason, you stated, “Markwayne and I both grew up in the Ozarks, and where we come from, people shoot you straight and say it like it is.” Grew up in the Ozarks? Mullins was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The closest he came to the Ozarks was when he attended Missouri Valley College in Marshall — about 60 miles north of the region — in 1996 on a wrestling scholarship. He left after a year without graduating to take over his family’s plumbing business. You want a plumber to run the DHS. You don’t appear to be the straight-shooter you claim to be.
You also suggested that Democrats are to blame for TSA funding shortages. The writer asserts that Democrats have submitted multiple bills to fund TSA and that those proposals were rejected by Republican leadership. Why can’t you own your part in that? In the Ozarks, we call that dishonesty.
Your “man for the moment,” Mullins, stated, “I will lead the breach. I will lay down cover fire. I will take the high ground. I’ll expose myself to enemy fire to communicate. We must bring back integrity, focus …” But on Jan. 6, he was photographed on his knees in the chamber during the chaos. Anyone can talk about courage.
I grew up in the Ozarks. I tell it like it is, and I shoot straight. Those cow-pies you’re selling — I can smell them a mile away.
Paul Flentge, Montana (Subscriber)
