BALALAIKA

February 5, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Balalaika?

I was amused to come across the Twitter thread that followed this Ed O’Keefe tweet last Wednesday:

SPOTTED: House & Senate GOP lawmakers boarding their train at Union Station en route to West Virginia, where they’ll be the next few days at the Greenbrier for their annual issues conference. Spouses and kids in tow. Rep. @DanaRohrabacher was carrying his guitar.

Most of the (long!) thread was in taunting reference to your fondness for the Russian regime, several tweeters speculating that the “guitar” was in fact a balalaika and that you’d be planning to regale the conferees with Russian folk songs.

But perhaps I shouldn’t joke about this. The train ride ended in that collision with a garbage truck. I was tempted to enjoy the irony of a trainload of Republicans ending up in the trash—until I learned that a man had died in the accident. No joking matter.

Anyway, I trust that you survived intact.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.