Going on the record on Trump

Re “One good thing about Beltway insiders,” Opinion, Jan. 9

Jonah Goldberg makes a telling analogy between Hollywood insiders who knew about Harvey Weinstein and other accused sexual harassers and assaulters but kept quiet, and Washington insiders who know the truth about the Trump White House but do their best to keep it under wraps.

Goldberg mentions administration staffers, members of Congress, senators and conservative spokesmen who are “fawning in public, yet brutally honest when speaking off the record.” Maybe it will be up to a courageous reporter or two to actually name the names of these folks who will tell it like it is in secret over cocktails, then go on Sean Hannity’s show and say something totally different.

Perhaps it will be similar to what happened in the sexual harassment cases: One brave soul steps up, and then another, and another, and finally the “disconnect between the talking points and the talkers” can no longer be denied.

Or we can just continue to let “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff do all the work. Rich Eames

Los Angeles

Goldberg’s astute column speaks to my ambivalence about Beltway insiders.

We need capable, prudent politicians to run the country. But so many of them so often diminish themselves with cynical proposals and disingenuous statements that betray partisan patronization. Worse, some politicians subordinate our country’s long-term interests to their constituents’ selfish, shortsighted conceits.

It’s not like future generations can vote. No wonder Beltway insiders tend to be so two-faced.

Perhaps the best antidote, as Goldberg intimates, is the threat of tell-all books like “Fire and Fury.” Sarah S. Williams

Santa Barbara