LETTER: Zinke sounds like part of the political problem

In a recent op-ed by Rep. Ryan Zinke about the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, he opens with a tasteful tribute to the departed judge. Though I didn’t vote for Rep. Zinke, I thought how refreshing it was to see some class exhibited by a D.C. politician on an issue that has turned into a hornet’s nest of hidden, and not so hidden, agendas.

Then I read the second paragraph and realized it was Washington business as usual by our own congressman. He blames “partisan bickering and demands to ignore the Constitution” as an “affront to his [Scalia’s] legacy.” Not to sound like a second-grader in a petty playground spat, but it seems to me that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell started the posturing, before the body was even cold, taking his ball and going home until he gets his way.

After reading the rest of the guest opinion, the “former U.S. Navy SEAL commander” uses it as a platform to grandstand to his followers and attack President Obama on every decision he doesn’t like as “unconstitutional.” Really?

With all the dysfunctional nonsense going on in Congress today, I think of a true statesman and leader like Mike Mansfield as being too distinguished to be “spinning in his grave,” as the saying goes. I’m sure he’s somewhere though, puffing away calmly on his pipe, shaking his head in disgust, along with the rest of us.

—Tom Horelick, Libby