A leader who doesn’t need a lawyer

In response to Larry and Dorothy Ashcraft’s letter in the Lake County Leader on Oct. 22:

Many of the condemnations of Monica Tranel are actually positives in our book. She worked for Montana Sen. Conrad Burns, a Republican. She truly supports bipartisanship not an “us against them” mentality which now threatens our democracy.

Gun violence: Mass shootings are out of control and most everyone except Zinke wants common sense solutions like universal background checks, banning sale of AK-15-style weapons or holding manufacturers accountable for marketing and selling military-grade weapons to young people. What other industry is granted wholesale immunity for clear wrongdoing?

Environment: Zinke opened Native American sacred areas in Utah to his oil and gas friends which later proved personally beneficial to him in receiving over $460,000 in just one year for so-called consulting. How could he not be beholden to the industry when he so personally benefited from them?

Ethics: Trump’s own appointed Inspector General investigated Zinke’s conduct while Secretary of the Interior. That there was no hearing finding guilt was because criminal charges are brought by the Justice Department not the investigators. It doesn’t in any way clear Zinke of overt wrongdoing and lying to investigators as was conclusively found. Why would he resign from such a prestigious position if he believed he never violated any rule, ethical or otherwise? Doesn’t pass the smell test.

Tax spending: Why is it that Republicans seek to assert only Liberals misspend hard-earned taxpayer money when, as an example, Trump and the Conservatives gave millions and perhaps billions to clearly undeserving businesses during the pandemic with the PPP program? The fraud is now being uncovered. Same can be said of the conservative tax giveaways for the oil and gas industry, farm subsidies to big agricultural corporations, and ridiculously low tax rates for the super wealthy. We need a leader who doesn’t NEED a lawyer.