What makes a great politician?

[David Lockmiller]

At an event in Wisconsin on Friday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan described Mr. Trump’s comments as “very unfortunate” and “unhelpful.” Mr. Ryan went on to recall how his own relatives immigrated to the United States from Ireland.

Source: A Senior Republican Senator Admonishes Trump: ‘America Is an Idea, Not a Race’
New York Times By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS JAN. 12, 2018

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The following are the three highest recommended comments made by New York Times readers to this story. All three comments are also New York Times Picks.

KP
Portland. OR
The republicans in the room who still keep silent are the real culprits.
• 4410 Recommend
Aaron
Traverse City, MI
Can we just call this what it is? Trump uses crude, crass, racist language and then LIES about. No need for dickering here, this is who Trump is.
• 3534 Recommend
Joe Lansing, MI
This is NOT "racially tinged" language. It's racist.
• 3304 Recommend


And, speaking of the highest rated comment, the New York Times article also states the following:

“In a joint statement released on Friday, two Republican senators who also attended the session, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, charged that Democrats were acting dishonorably, claiming that they could not remember whether Mr. Trump used the words attributed to him.”

[Please note, Kate, these same two U.S. Senators did not comment on the remarks made by Republican U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham and the Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. I wonder why not. Maybe you have an answer to this question. And, do you believe these two U.S. Senators when they say that “could not remember whether Mr. Trump used the words attributed to him” although they were all sitting together in the Oval Office of the White House?]

You probably consider Senators Cotton and Perdue to be great politicians, but we will have to disagree about that assessment until the end of time.