Red state lawmaker torn apart in hometown paper for 'dumb' lies

Wichita Eagle columnist Dion Lefler does not suffer idiots easily. He also has no patience for Kansas senators who blow lies on “propaganda network” Newsmax, blaming a long-gone president for President Donald Trump’s bad choices.

“Faced with a threat to the U.S. beef industry, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall has leapt into action to do what he does best — blame Joe Biden and Hispanics,” writes Lefler. “Never mind that his heroes, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, probably bear more responsibility because they defunded an animal-health program that was preventing the threat.

Lefler said Marshall, who is a member of the Senate Agricultural Committee, got invited to Newsmax “to spout some Republican party-line rhetoric” about the screwworm fly, which has recently resurfaced in Texas cattle 60 years after other U.S. presidents had eradicated it from the U.S. border.

“I don’t have time to write a column every time Roger Marshall goes on right-wing TV and says something dumb, but his appearance this week on the propaganda network Newsmax pretty much demands response,” said Lefleur.

But Marshall could not wait to blame somebody — anybody — other than Trump for the nasty little maggot’s reappearance under his watch.

“We eradicated the screwworm in 1966 and we’ll talk about this, but this is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for, that when millions of people came out of Central America, they brought this screwworm with them, it was on their pets, maybe on their flesh as well,” Marshall told the Newsmax audience.

“The probability that this problem was caused by migrants trekking northward from Central America is somewhere between vanishingly small and nonexistent,” said Lefleur, who points out that scientists attribute the re-introduction of the screwworm primarily to organized crime and the smuggling of illicit cattle from Central America.

The screw worm is a live maggot that burrows into living flesh like a little monster. It most definitely would not be tolerated on a living, mobile human healthy enough to travel. We’re humans. We pick at spots, itchy patches and wounds. A wriggling, gnawing maggot would not stand a chance over the course of its 5-to-7-day cycle in a human’s arm or leg.

Perhaps Marshal was thinking about migrant dogs or cats traveling alongside their migrant owners, but that’s stupid, too, said Lefleur.

But if you want to seriously consider the root of the screwworm resurgence, look no further, says Lefluer, than the opinion of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.): “Trump and Elon Musk got rid of the USAID program that helped contain screwworms to Central America. Now, thanks to them, our beef is being infected with parasites. We’re all paying the price for this insane, far-right radical extremism.”

Or consider the opinion of Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.): “This screwworm epidemic may have been avoided if DOGE folks actually communicated with our ranchers. Instead, a team of wholly unqualified interns recklessly cut the screwworm prevention program. Now ranchers will suffer and beef prices will continue to rise.”

[Of course,] confirming exactly how much DOGE cut from screwworm protection is practically impossible at this point,” added Lefluer. “While Trump administration officials struggle at eradicating screwflies, they’re experts at eradicating records of their mistakes. The website www.doge.gov, where the administration once proudly ballyhooed the supposed savings by Musk and his musketeers, is now a blank page.”