A matter of trust

The home town paper comes out against Kent Williams being reinstated as a Republican.

It should not be forgotten that no one forced Rep. Williams to sign a pledge that he would support his party’s nominee — then widely understood to be Rep. Jason Mumpower of Bristol — for speaker. Williams did that of his own free will. To publicly make that pledge, only to break it for his own personal aggrandizement, was, and remains, a dishonorable act for which Williams has never apologized.

Indeed, it is Williams who unaccountably continues to affect an air of victimhood for being shunned by the colleagues he betrayed.

His conduct reminds of the story about the boy who murdered his parents, then threw himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan.

Rep. Williams has already bartered away the trust once placed in him when he cynically plotted to advance his personal political standing at the expense of his colleagues and the Republican constituents who elected him.

It’s exceedingly clear that the only allegiance Kent Williams has is to himself.

Some Tennessee Republicans may be inclined to forgive or ignore Rep. Williams’ duplicity in the past in exchange for his vote in a closely divided House. But they need to know that by doing so they are not merely excusing bad behavior, but elevating expediency over experience.