Comment: Twisted Logic

As we approach the presidential inauguration of a convicted felon, I find it absolutely mind-boggling that some politicians and potential candidates who have criminal histories are, in some cases, held to higher standards and are forbidden from holding office.

For instance, in 2022, Columbia Borough Council in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County voted to appoint a resident to fill a vacant seat. He was never sworn in because council discovered that he was a convicted felon who had served time in prison for mail fraud. The conviction rendered him ineligible to hold public office for 10 years. 

Another recent example, Mayor Sal Bonaccorso of Clark, New Jersey, resigned over charges of criminal activity. Bonaccorso is permanently barred from holding any future public office or public employment.

Rightly so, we don't trust those with felony convictions to run our local governments, but we're okay with allowing one to run the entire country? Twisted logic.

--Sharon Lintner

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Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes left the newspaper when an editor refused to run her cartoon calling out WaPo owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other tech billionaires for visiting incoming President Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, on bended knee. 

In the left column below, guest pundit Chris Bidlack argues that Telnaes was standing up for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in leaving the Post when it would not publish her cartoon.

Scroll down the page using the trackbar on the far-right to read Bidlack’s commentary in this column.

Detail on Telnaes’ cartoon and departure is in the center column news/analysis. 

While you’re there, please be sure to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s counterpoint to Bidlack’s commentary, in which he argues that Bezos has the right not to be made fun of in his own newspaper. 

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