Editor:

After a self-imposed inner exile, I am now on a quest for some answers. Maybe some of the hard-core Republicans can explain them for me.

1. I know that we are supposed to be "Cowboy Tough" and be ready to "Cowboy Up." We are constantly told that we are free thinkers and we aren't like everybody else in this country.

Why is it that whenever our federal representatives decide to band together and vote against a specific bill, we are told that it is good for the rest of the country, but it is no good for us in Wyoming? I have a hard time believing we are that far out of the mainstream?

2. Now that the primary is over and we are on our way to the general election, we have a new person carrying the banner for the Republicans, but she starts out the same way the old one did business.

First, you start off by going negative, and when it gets headlines, then comes the lame apology and shock and dismay if there is any kind of reciprocation, then comes the hurt and bewilderment.

Am I the only one who has watched this repeated on a regular basis for the past 14 years?

If nothing changes this time around, we will be on the outside looking in again. True insanity is doing the same thing the same way time after time and expecting different results.

DUFFY JENNIGES, Gillette