Shame on Stefanik’s spokesman for comments on Cheney

Molly Burke’s article “Cheney critical of Stefanik in book,” Dec. 7, discusses Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney’s new book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning.” Burke focuses on Cheney’s take of Elise Stefanik, congresswoman for New York’s 21st Congressional District, which now includes Rensselaer County, as a collaborator with former president Donald Trump.

It is Stefanik’s spokesman’s reaction, though, that caught my attention. I am most annoyed that her spokesman also presumes to speak for me.

I care very much in what Cheney, today a rare Republican profile in courage, has to write. In fact, there are plenty of voters in upstate New York who indeed care about Cheney’s words, then and now, and not the picture painted by Stefanik’s spokesman.

Furthermore, I am seriously offended that the spokesman can only resort to being insulting and disrespectful of Cheney. His type of response does not deserve repeating. He never directly addresses the book or what Cheney even has to say about Stefanik. Such insults and disrespect are shocking, unacceptable and so telling of both Stefanik and her selected spokesman.

Why doesn’t Stefanik speak for herself in response to Cheney’s views? Is it that she cannot deny or refute Cheney’s allegations? As a constituent, I wonder why she needs to spend time and energy on an expresident instead of her constituents.

Whatever the reason for using a spokesman, elected officials and their representatives need to be professional, responsible and display some sense of dignity in their public capacities.

Mary Dugan East Greenbush